A Clash of Cultures
by Morena Evensong
Summary: Kagome is visiting her relatives in London. However, a peaceful walk through the park turns into something more when she meets a demon, a death eater and comes into contact with a slightly different kind of magic. Xover with Harry Potter COMPLETED
1. Default Chapter

**Here's an idea that popped** into my head after reading a few bad Inu Yasha crossovers. Hopefully this isn't at all like them. Well, I don't think I've ever read anything similar anyway. Although most of the story takes place in the Harry Potter world, namely London, the story centres mostly on Kagome, which is why I posted it here and not with the other Harry Potter fiction.

I would also like to note that while I mention both London and Tokyo in the story I have never been to either city (Heathrow airport doesn't count as far as I'm concerned) so I hope I haven't made any glaring errors in describing them.

Disclaimer: I also don't own _Inu Yasha_ or _Harry Potter_. There are other, more talented people who do.

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**A Clash of Cultures**

**Chapter 1** - Friends and Family

Kagome Higurashi breathed in the London air. She loved how different it felt from her native Tokyo. There was same mixture of past and present in the city, but it was different. The past in Tokyo was hidden, like jewels waiting to be found only by those who wanted to see. In London, the past stood strong and proud, impossible to ignore. The large, stone buildings spoke of a different past than the quiet bamboo structures in Japan.

This history of stone was unknown to Kagome. She found it fascinating. And yet at the same time it frightened her.

At home she lived with her mother and brother Sota in the temple that her grandfather kept. The temple had been her home as far back as she could remember; as a child she had spent countless hours exploring each and every corner of it. Its history was comfortable, familiar.

The stone structures of London seemed harsh and unyielding in comparison and Kagome found herself a bit on edge. Over the last two years her natural instincts had taken quite a workout and she couldn't seem to shake the feeling of being wary of anything unfamiliar. Not distrustful, no, just wary, always watching for possible escape routes or shelters in the back of her mind.

She hadn't always been like that. She still remembered a time when she had been an ordinary teenage girl and the past had been something she read about in school books. Now she was a teenage miko, the reincarnation of a powerful priestess who simply refused to die and a key figure in the quest to assemble the shards of the legendary Shikon jewel and destroy the half-demon Naraku.

Kagome could remember a time when she felt safe going out without the bow and arrows that were currently hidden in her backpack. The arrows she had made herself while in the feudal era, but the bow was a beautifully crafted longbow with a red leather grip. Engraved on either side of the grip were black Japanese characters standing for the four parts of the soul. It was a simple and classic style, yet screamed of modern craftsmanship. Her mother had given it to her on her sixteenth birthday along with a hard-covered case which fit the bow, a quiver of arrows and a servicing kit.

Kagome idly wondered if Inu Yasha had come to fetch her yet. She giggled to herself as she imagined his reaction when he found out she was half-way across the world. She could picture her mother's calm, patient expression as she explained that her daughter was in England, which was a country where they didn't speak Japanese, didn't eat sushi and it would take him several months to travel to even with his supernatural speed.

Kagome had been surprised when she had finally emerged from the well in her own time only to hear she had about two days to pack for a trip to London. Apparently she had relatives who had heard of her 'delicate health' and suggested that the humid London air might do wonders for her.

Kagome was not about to pass up a trip to England, no matter how much the reason annoyed her.

"Kagome, do you want to go sit down for a bit?" the voice of her cousin interrupted her musing. Kagome gritted her teeth.

"No thank you, I'm not tired," she answered, desperately trying to keep her voice pleasant. It was a very hard thing to do. Her cousin Cho had asked her the very same question not even half an hour ago and all they had been doing since then was strolling around Hyde park after visiting Kensington Palace.

Kagome was used to much, much more physical activity than that. Unfortunately she couldn't tell her relatives that.

Besides they already thought her strange for carrying a bow and quiver of arrows around with her everywhere. Luckily, she hadn't had to make up an excuse for that, since apparently her grandfather had already explained it to them.

That did not make Kagome feel any better, but at least she was saved the uncomfortable questions.

"So, how did you like the palace?" asked Cho.

"It was nice," answered Kagome, "it is different from what we have in Japan. Our palaces are not so tall. They. . . feel different."

"I'll bet!" her cousin laughed.

Kagome looked at Cho. She couldn't help but feel that there was something different about her. Ever since they met at the airport, she could feel it. Her father was the same, but he was at work most of the time, so she couldn't observe him as much.

She sensed it more acutely when she was very close to her cousin. It felt like power, but different than the magical auras she'd seen around the sorceresses she'd met in the feudal era. It wasn't evil for a start. It also seemed almost accidental; Cho didn't seem to be trying to hide it and somehow Kagome doubted her cousin even knew it was there.

It confused Kagome, but she held her tongue. As long as Cho or her family didn't try to kill her, eat her, or steal her soul, she'd rather not have to explain why she could sense their auras.

And when she got back to the feudal era, she'd have Old Kajede teach her how to read auras properly. If Inu Yasha ever let her out of his sight again that is.

"Merlin, I don't believe it!" Cho cried suddenly with wide eyes. Kagome turned her head to look at what had surprised her cousin.

There stood two boys and a girl of about Cho's age. One of the boys had dark, messy hair and was wearing clothes that were obviously much too big for him. He also wore a pair of large, ugly glasses. The other boy was a redhead and was about half a head taller than the first one. His mop of shaggy hair reminded her a bit of Shippo and she had to suppress the urge to run her hands through it just to see if it felt the same as well. His clothes were a bit too short for him, as if he had just grown out of them and hadn't had a chance to get new ones yet. The girl with them had long, bushy hair that stuck out everywhere. She was about the same height as the first boy and carried a travel guide in one hand.

Kagome guessed they must be classmates; their auras were similar to the Chang family's. Except for the boy with glasses. His was slightly darker, but the darkness appeared to be more of a shadow on his aura rather than a part of his aura. When she concentrated a bit harder she saw a spot on his forehead that seemed to emit some sort of darker power. The spot was covered by hair, but she was certain she could make out a scar there.

'This boy's been touched by dark magic,' she realized. Then she wondered how that had happened and if there was some way she could find out without giving herself away.

"Hi Cho," the boy said coolly. Kagome's eyes shot to her cousin, but Cho's expression was guarded. There was definitely something between the two of them.

"Hello Harry," Cho suddenly smiled at him, then nodded at each of his companions, "Weasley, Granger."

"Hello Chang," the other two greeted.

"So, uhh. . . who's your friend?" asked the bushy-haired girl, whom her cousin had addressed as Granger.

"Oh, this is my cousin, Kagome," Cho began, putting an arm around said cousin, "she's visiting from Japan. Poor thing has been very sickly during the last year and so my parents thought that some fresh British air could do her some good."

Kagome cringed inwardly. She really did not need more people treating her as if she was a porcelain doll that could die if she took another step in the sunlight. What did they think she was: an anaemic vampire? And to top it off, the redhead couldn't seem to take his eyes off her mini-skirt. She wished she had Sango's Kitana with her.

"She doesn't look very sickly," Granger said, looking Kagome up and down.

"Well, she's been feeling much better lately."

"And _she_ is right _here_!" Kagome said, really irritated now.

"Sorry," Cho apologized sheepishly, "these are friends of mine from school. This is Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley and that's Harry Potter."

Kagome noticed the boy Harry take a deep breath as if preparing himself for something. It confused her.

"Hi, nice to meet you," she waved to them and smiled. Harry looked at his two friends and seemed to convey some sort of message with his eyes. Hermione gave Kagome a curious look.

"Kagome, what school do you go to?" she asked. The question took Kagome aback; it was an odd question to ask someone you've just met unless there was some reason you'd know the school.

"Just one in Tokyo," she said and looked to her cousin for help. Spending time in the Feudal Era did a lot for her understanding of Old Japanese, but nothing for her English. Cho seemed to know what they were asking though.

"Oh, she goes to a public school, not like us," she answered meaningfully and the other three nodded in understanding. Kagome felt like she was definitely missing something.

"Wow, so she's a muggle!" Weasley exclaimed. The others glared at him.

"What's a muggle?" Kagome asked.

"Well. . . " Cho began, pausing as if thinking what to say, "it's a British term for anyone who's a foreigner." Then she turned to her friends. "So, what are you doing here anyway?"

"Oh, Harry's never seen the sights of London and neither has Ron," the Granger girl answered, "so we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go do the tourist thing."

"Well, you certainly seem prepared for it," Cho motioned to the travel guide.

"I'm the only one of us who's been here before, so I'm acting as guide for the day. I had to make sure all my information was correct."

"Yes, Hermione here has been telling all about the history and significance of every building and tree we've come across," Ron deadpanned.

"And do you remember any of it?"

Ron slowly shook his head. Cho giggled. Hermione's eyes narrowed.

"So. . . Cho. ." Harry cut in before anyone started an argument, "have you gotten your OWL results back yet?"

"Yes, I got them last week."

From then on, Kagome completely lost track of the conversation. They began talking about school-related stuff and ignored her entirely. She tuned them out and looked off at the rest of the gardens. Then she put her backpack down beside her cousin.

"Cho," she said, "I'm going to go walk over there."

"Ok," her cousin answered, "just don't overdo it. Remember you're still not at full health yet no matter how good you feel."

'Funny, I don't think I've ever been in better shape,' Kagome thought as she absently nodded in response, before leaving the group in favour of the trees and flowers in the park.

She walked aimlessly for about ten minutes before she felt it: youkai. It was such a familiar feeling, like a touch of home. She revelled in it for a moment before she realized that it wasn't actually a good thing. She concentrated on the presence she felt and then took off after it, ignoring the weird looks she was getting for running through the park in a mini-skirt.

She stopped directly in front of a hedge of bushes. The demon was on the other side. She reached for her backpack and then cursed silently when she realized that she had left her bag back by her cousin.

'Inu Yasha must be rubbing off on me,' she thought, 'running off after danger without thinking. . . yep, definitely Inu Yasha's influence.'

The bushes rustled and Kagome took a few steps back. She prepared to meet the demon, praying he wasn't too big. She might be able to defend herself against a small, less powerful one. Or maybe outrun it to her arrows.

What emerged from the bushes was also incredibly familiar. For a few moments Kagome just stared at the two-tailed cat.

"Ki. . . Kilala?" she finally asked. The cat meowed and happily bounced over to Kagome, who knelt down and picked it up.

"Kilala, what are you doing here?" Another meow answered her.

Soon Kilala began to squirm in Kagome's arms. Kagome set her down on the ground and watched as she bounded around the bushes, stopping once to look back at Kagome.

'So, I guess that means she wants me to follow her.'

Kagome rounded the hedge and stopped. There was someone there. She watched silently as Kilala approached a pale, platinum blond boy who was sitting on the ground, hugging his knees to his chest and resting his head on them. He had the same aura as Cho and her friends, except darker. Kilala meowed and rubbed at his side.

"Hello Kilala," he said miserably as he turned his head to look at her and untangled one of his arms in order to scratch her head. Then he went back to looking off into the distance. Kagome took a few careful steps towards him. Even from a distance she could see the tears streaming down his face. Then she stepped on a twig.

The boy's head snapped around and within seconds he was on his feet and pointing some sort of stick at her. She noticed a large mass of dark energy concentrated on his left forearm: a mark of some sorts, she guessed. She saw his aura brighten and absorb more energy from the air around it.

The realization struck her like a bolt of lightening: the boy could do magic.

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Hope you all enjoyed the first chapter! Now please review! Constructive critisism is always welcomed!


	2. The Miko and the Death Eater

**Wow**, I can't believe how many reviews I got on the first chapter of this! I'm absolutely thrilled you all like this! Thank you all very much:

**inuyashas hun **- Your questions will all be answered very, very soon.**blobber -** Thanks, I'm glad you think this crossover works. There's nothing worse in my opinion than a crossover that's forced and doesn't flow well or make sense. I'm very happy I haven't done that.

**xHikari-808x - **You're adding me to your alert list? Wow, I'm flattered. Hope you enjoy this chapter just as much.

**RoaringWind - **No, there are no pairings in my mind for this fic and sorry to disappoint, but I don't think there'll be any. I kinda already have this all mapped out in my head and it won't really be all that long once the real action starts. Not long enough for any pairings.

**LadySunflower - **How could I end it like that? Very easily: I pressed "save" and went to post. ;p I'm glad you like this fic and thanks again for pointing out what I forgot to mention last time about the last name thing. Oh, and Kirara has survived all this time, so it is the original demon cat we all know and love. More about her in this chapter.

**Fuji the Hobbit - **Wow, I can't believe you actually reviewed all three ofmy stories! It makes me soooo happy! Anyway, I'm glad I've integrated the two worlds well. I've read some really bad Inu Yasha crossovers and was really hoping not to write one as well. And thanks for the vote of confidence: I'll try not to disappoint.

**Moonjava -** Thanks for reviewing all three of my stories. I'm flattered.

Also thanks to: **Gorgeous**, **The Painted Lady**, **KHStennis01**, **IYGURL, shangxiang10** and **Diana Artemis Silvermoon.**

Disclaimer: I do not own _Inu Yasha_ or _Harry Potter_, unfortunately.

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**Author's Note: **I was supposed to mention this last chapter, but completely forgot. My thanks go out to **LadySunflower** for pointing it out. "Chang" is a Chinese last name and Kagome is, as we all know Japanese. It doesn't seem to say anywhere that Cho has two Chinese parents, so for the purpose of this story, I'm saying that Cho's mother or grandmother or someone was born "Higurashi" (it doesn't really matter which).

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**A Clash of Cultures**

**Chapter 2 -** The Miko and the Death Eater

He had to get away. He knew it was probably cowardly of him and his father would be furious, but he didn't care. He had to leave before he lost it, went mad from his own thoughts.

He grabbed his travelling cloak and threw it on as he raced down the stairs of Malfoy Manor. He ran out the door and didn't stop until he had past the boundary of the anti-apparition wards. Only then did he stop to catch his breath. Where was he going to go though? Not Diagon Alley, not anywhere magical. . . he didn't want to be around wizards at the moment. He suddenly remembered a palace and a park that his mother had taken him to once when he was younger. The image of a statue of a boy appeared in his mind. He remembered his mother telling him the story of a boy who would never grow up to be a man. He had liked that story.

Suddenly he felt something rub against his leg. He looked down to see his pet cat looking up at him. He could've sworn she looked worried.

"Hello Kirara," he said, smiling gently. He scooped her up off the ground. "Do you want to come with me girl?" Kirara meowed and Draco already felt a bit calmer. His companion was with him.

He took out his wand and uttered the apparition spell. When he opened his eyes he was staring up at the familiar statue. It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny. There were no people around either. Perfect. There was a hedge of bushes behind the statue, so Draco walked over and sat in their shade. Kirara settled down in his lap and he gently stroked her.

Kirara wasn't just an ordinary cat. She was a magical cat with two tails. He had received her as a gift when his family had visited Japan. He was eight at the time and his parents had taken him to some party they had been invited to. He didn't understand most of the people there since they spoke in Japanese, although most of them could also speak English when they had to. Since he was the only child at the party he sat in a corner and watched his parents socialize, wishing he could leave.

He remembered crying out in surprise when something furry suddenly jumped into his lap. It was the most curious looking cat he'd ever seen. First of all, it looked somewhat large for a cat, but it wasn't fat. It wasn't sleek like most cats he had seen either. Most importantly, however, it had two tails. He had never heard of a cat with two tails before.

He spent the rest of the party playing with it: crawling under tables and running after it through the halls. He had never had such fun at a party before.

His parents hadn't thought it was such a great thing though when they noticed him dart under the large buffet table. He had emerged on the other side to find his mother standing there with an absolutely unimpressed look on her face. Her eyes softened a bit when the cat peeked its head out from underneath the tablecloth. But then his father came up beside his mother with a blank expression on his face. Draco knew that expression well; his father only made it when he was extremely furious. It never meant anything good.

"What are you doing under the table?" he asked in a low, dangerous voice. Draco gulped and got up from under the table.

"I was sitting down when this cat found me and we started playing," he said quickly, trying to think of a way in which he could make this look good, "I think she's a magical cat, because she has two tails and most cats only have one. . ."

"I don't care about the stupid cat," his father seethed, "I do however care to know why my son, the heir to the Malfoy name, is doing something as plebeian as crawling underneath tables."

"I was bored," Draco answered in a small voice, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it, honest."

"Well, it's getting late," Draco's mother said, deciding to step in between her husband and her son, "we should probably be heading back to the hotel now, anyway. After all we have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Can I just say good-bye to the cat?" Draco asked his mother carefully. She smiled and nodded. Draco quickly looked around and saw the cat sitting by the punch table, watching him curiously. He headed in her direction.

"Well, it looks like I have to go now," he said, kneeling down to scratch her between the ears, "I wish I knew your name so that I didn't have to keep referring to you as 'cat,' but I guess it doesn't really matter anymore anyway since I'm never going to see you again."

"Her name is Kirara," said a cold voice from behind him. Draco jumped up and whirled around.

Standing there was a tall Japanese man Draco had never seen before. He would've remembered him if he had. He looked young, maybe the same age as his father and his hair was so long it almost touched the ground. What was unusual about it though was that it was silver, not black like that of most Japanese people, or even white-blond like Draco's, but silver. He wasn't dressed like a wizard either, but instead wore a black and white warrior's outfit with a blood red sash around his middle that held two swords in place. He was missing an arm.

"Is she yours, sir?" Draco asked quietly as he stared into the man's emotionless golden eyes. A shiver ran up his spine. He didn't know how, but he just knew this man was not someone he ever wanted to see upset.

"In a matter of speaking. . ." the man answered, "what is your name boy?"

"Draco, Draco Malfoy, sir."

"Draco, what is taking you so long? It's just a stupid feline!" Draco heard his father growl angrily as he walked up from behind the strange man. Draco's eyes looked to his father. He was torn between leaving with his father and wanting to know more about the strange man and his cat. He was saved the trouble of deciding when his father noticed the man talking to Draco.

"Oh, hello," Lucius Malfoy said, switching into his calm, sophisticated English Lord mode, "I apologize for my son's behaviour, I'm afraid these parties are a bit too much for a small boy like him to handle sometimes. I am Lord Malfoy from England."

To Draco's amazement the Japanese man did not even acknowledge his father, but instead kept watching Draco. Draco felt something rub against his leg and he looked down at the cat, Kirara.

"Is she a magical cat?" he whispered, looking back up at her owner. The silver-haired man nodded.

"Really, what can she do?" his father tried again to engage the stranger into a conversation. He was once again ignored.

"She likes you," the stranger said. He looked at Kirara. She meowed and after a while the stranger nodded his head. Draco watched in awe, it was as if they were communicating. He wondered if perhaps Kirara was an animagus.

"You may take her home with you," the silver-haired man announced and turned to leave. Draco stood there, stunned. Then he ran to the man, stopping just in front of him. The man stopped and looked at him with those emotionless eyes again.

"Thank you," Draco said, feeling a bit foolish. The man nodded and Draco found a bit of courage he didn't know he had.

"Wh-who are you?" he asked.

"I am Sesshoumaru, Lord of the Western Lands."

"Umm. . . well, thank you Lord Sesshoumaru."

Sesshoumaru moved past Draco and Draco ran back to the table to pick up Kirara before he joined his parents. Their eyes widened when he told them whom he just had met.

Kirara became his constant companion until he turned 11 and started Hogwarts. He didn't take her to school with him, because his father said it would make him appear weak. He had missed her though, especially at first.

Over the years he had systematically gone through every book both at home and at Hogwarts in order to try and figure out what kind of cat she was, but with no positive results. He had learned a lot about Japanese culture though and even about Lord Sesshoumaru, his half-brother Inu Yasha and the swords they carried: the Tetsusaiga, the Tenseiga and the Tokijin. The more he found out about the demon lord, the more he felt honoured at having caught his attention all those years ago. Sometimes he even imagined what it would've been like to travel with him and his two companions during the feudal era in Japan.

If only he could've travelled with him. Then he would've had a different life and the last three days would never have happened.

Had it really only been three days ago that his father had walked into his room, looking as if Christmas had come early.

"Draco," he had said, "the Dark Lord has decided that you are worthy of becoming his servant. Tonight you shall be initiated."

Those were the words that had sealed his fate. No one asked him if he wanted to get initiated. Though he probably would have done it at the time just to please his father anyway. Just to see the look of pride on his father's face as he led him before the red-eyed monster he served.

He hadn't known the truth then, what serving the Dark Lord really meant. He hadn't known what it felt like to watch another human being scream as they were being tortured, to then watch their lifeless corpse fall to the ground. He had listened, he had watched, he had participated. Now he knew. And he felt sick, dirty. The Mark on his forearm no longer burned as intensely as it had before, but its constant throbbing was a reminder of what he had pledged his life to.

He didn't want it anymore; he'd rip it off with his bare hands if he could. But that was impossible. There was no way out. Maybe, just maybe if he went to Dumbledore, after all he was the only wizard that the Dark Lord feared, right? But Dumbledore was just another self-righteous Gryffindor; why would he help a Slytherin? He'd probably just call the aurors on him and have him shipped straight to Azkaban. And after what he'd done, Draco wasn't so sure he didn't belong there.

But that didn't mean he'd walk in there voluntarily.

Draco's train of thought was broken for an instant as Kirara jumped out of his lap and ran into the bushes behind him. He didn't blame her; he only wished it was so easy for him to leave his own company. He brought his knees up to his chest and rested his chin against them.

It seemed like he'd been sitting there for ages, staring at the back of the statue of the boy who would never grow up. His father and the Dark Lord seemed so far away to Draco as he listened to the wind rustle with leaves and watched as it danced with each blade of grass.

He looked down as something brushed up against him.

"Hey Kirara," he said quietly and scratched her behind the ears. Then he went back to staring ahead.

A twig snapped. Draco looked in the direction of the noise and saw a Japanese girl with long hair watching him with curiosity. With reflexes honed from years of quidditch, Draco jumped up and grabbed his wand, pointing it at her.

When Draco saw surprise and confusion on her face he inwardly cursed himself. She was a muggle. And he couldn't obliviate her, because he hadn't turned 17 yet and it was therefore against the law for him to do magic outside of school.

Then he realized that being a death eater was probably a worse crime than doing underage magic.

Just as he was about to say the incantation, the girl's eyes went wide in comprehension. He paused. How was it possible that she didn't seem to know what a wand was one minute and then seemed to understand what it was for the next? He shook his head. It didn't matter, he'd obliviate her anyway.

Just then Kirara leaped onto the girl's shoulder and meowed at him. She looked at him with big pleading eyes. The girl didn't even seem surprised by the cat with two tails she now had sitting on her shoulder. Instead, she petted the cat and smiled at it.

"Who are you?" Draco demanded.

"Kagome," she replied and then watched Kirara jump down from her shoulder and bound off to leap onto Draco's. "Where did you get her?"

"In Japan, when I was little," Draco answered, wary of how familiar the girl seemed to be with his cat. Then he got an idea. He lowered his wand and began twirling it with his fingers.

"She was a gift from the Lord of the Western Lands," he drawled. The girl's eyes snapped to his.

"Sesshoumaru?" she asked, clearly shocked by his revelation. Draco smirked. Yup, this girl was definitely no muggle if she knew who Lord Sesshoumaru was.

Suddenly he felt Kirara stir where she sat on his left shoulder. He looked at her and scrunched his brow in confusion. She was batting at the sleeve of his robe.

"What is it?" Kagome asked and Draco jumped at how close her voice sounded. She was now standing right in front of him and he hadn't even heard her approach. He looked at her and saw that she was staring at his forearm, at the exact spot where his Dark Mark was.

He pulled his arm away and looked at her in shock. He had two layers of black clothes over it, there was no way this girl, witch or not, should be able to see it. She met his eyes.

"Is it a mark of some sort?" she asked and Draco frowned.

"Yes," he sneered, "it's the Dark Mark actually."

He didn't quite know what reaction he was expecting from this girl, but it certainly wasn't the blank look she gave him. That made him angry. How did this non-muggle girl dare pretend not to know what the Dark Mark was! She was supposed to shrink away in fear and not look at him as if he was speaking in Swahili!

Kagome took a step back when Draco suddenly shoved his left arm in front of her and pulled up the sleeve of his robe. She gasped when she saw the snake and skull tattoo marring his pale skin. Then she gingerly reached her hand out to touch it. Draco hissed in pain the moment her fingers brushed the Mark.

"It is evil," she whispered.

"So am I," Draco answered her. Kagome looked up at him thoughtfully, then at Kirara and then back at him.

"No," she said firmly, "Kirara likes you. She would not like you if you were evil."

"She's a cat. She's been with me since I was eight, of course she likes me. I highly doubt she could tell the difference anyway - hey!" Draco glared at Kirara, who had batted the side of his head with her paw. It always amazed him just how strong she could be. Then he turned back to Kagome.

"This mark makes me evil."

"You don't want it?" she asked thoughtfully. He snorted.

"It's not like I have a choice. It's permanent, can't be removed."

Just then Kagome stepped right up to him and grabbed his forearm in her left hand. She placed her right hand over top of the Mark. Kirara jumped off his shoulder.

Then his world exploded in waves of pain. It rolled off of his forearm and into the rest of his body. It was worse than what he had felt when Voldemort had branded the thing onto his arm. He gritted his teeth, determined not to scream. He could feel the exact outline of Kagome's hand as if it were made of red-hot iron.

Just as he didn't think he could take it anymore, the pain stopped. He collapsed onto the ground, panting hard. Beside him, he heard Kagome do the same. He peeked at her out of the corner of his eye and noticed she looked exhausted. Beads of sweat glistened on her forehead.

Then he realized the throbbing on his forearm was gone. He pushed himself off the ground and knelt on the grass. He pulled up his left sleeve and stared.

The Dark Mark was gone.

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Well, there you go. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and please review! 


	3. Youkai!

**Wow,** I have never gotten so many reviews for a single chapter before! I'm floored! It makes me so happy that you guys are enjoying this so much. My thanks to everyone who reviewed:

**inuyashas hun **- Lol, I'm sure no one thought Kagome could purify the Dark Mark until I thought of it (well, ok, so I'm probably not _that_ brilliant, but I certainly have never heard of anyone writing that before). As for Harry and co hearing Malfoy screaming: they're on the other side of the park, or at least far enough that they might not hear anything. Plus Draco gritted his teeth in order to not make as much noise. . . actually I'm more concerned about other people in the park hearing him.

**RoaringWind -** Huh? Random hyperlinks, what random hyperlinks? Glad I'm being unpredictable, I try very hard.

**LitoKyomi - **Wow, I'm glad you think my fic's that good. Here's another instalment, hope you like! And from now on I think the chapters are going to be much shorter, so they won't take as long to write. Maybe.

**nunofyorbiz - **Malfoy, out of character? I think his state of mind at the beginning of the chapter is confused. He's just gone through a major shock, so I think it makes some sense that he's a bit out of it. We all have moments like that. And don't forget that the only time we really see Draco in the books is when he's fighting with Harry.

**Lady Sunflower - **Sesshy is my favourite character, he has definitely not disappeared into the ether. And I will try very hard not to make the Trio stuck-up. As it is, I'm not planning for them to be major characters in the story, so I don't think that'll be a problem (I honestly do try to be fair to them even though I am a Slytherin fan).

**Diana Artemis Silvermoon - **Sorry, no I'm afraid the fic won't be long enough for any Kagome/Draco romance. Besides, I think she's too fixated on Inu Yasha. Glad you liked the whole Dark Mark purification thing. Honestly, the idea that she could probably do that is what gave rise to this entire story.

**Moonjava - **You're not a crossover fan, yet you read mine? Wow, now I'm really flattered. Imagining how different characters and different worlds would interact with one another is why I love crossovers so much.

**Deamon Drama Queen - **Oh no, not the puppy dog eyes! Aaahhh! Lol, I'm glad you like my plot; I try to be original. I mean, where's the fun in writing a plot that someone else has already done?

**Shadowed Rains - **I hate making up titles, so I'm glad you like this one. As for Draco, well, he's not really redeemed here: he's just gotten a serious case of reality check.

**kris -** Don't worry, there will be an explanation as to how Kirara and Sesshoumaru ended up together towards the end of the story.

**shadow-mistress -** Sorry, no Draco/Kagome romantic pairing, although the two of them are going to be the central characters in this story. Glad you like the story!

Also thanks to: **shangxiang10**, **Aisu**, **E.J.A Roberts**, **Helen, Aisu**, **i am me**, and **Aria-Chan**.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this!

Warning: Minor spoiler for the third _Inu Yasha_ movie (as in I mention a scene from it).

* * *

A Clash of Cultures

Chapter 3 - Youkai!

Kagome collapsed onto the grass. She was exhausted; the tattoo had been made with very powerful dark magic and it had seemed to have been trying to draw in more dark magic from someplace. Purifying it had been like a huge tug of war between her magic and some sort of powerful well of magic. She suddenly remembered the spider mark that appeared on each of Naraku's children. Had the mark been something like that? Could it be possible to disconnect the parts from Naraku if she purified their spider symbols?

Not, that she would ever be able to test that theory since generally, they wanted to kill her and so getting close enough to potentially purify the spider mark was somewhat difficult. Not to mention that they were demons, or rather parts of a demon, so it probably worked differently there.

She glanced up at the blond boy. He looked as exhausted as she felt. Then he slowly pushed himself off the ground so that he was kneeling. He pulled up the left sleeve of the strange garment he was wearing and stared at the spot where the mark used to be.

Kagome opened her mouth to ask if he was ok and then closed it again, frowning as she realized she didn't even know his name.

"What is your name?" she asked. Her words seemed to wake him somewhat from his stupor. He blinked.

"Draco," he replied softly, his eyes not moving from the now unmarked skin of his left forearm.

"Are you ok, Draco?" she asked gently. There were several moments of silence before he finally turned to look at her with a bewildered expression on his face.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

"I. . ." Kagome began and then realized she didn't know how to explain it in English, "I used magic." she finished lamely.

"Your magic can destroy the Dark Lord's?" his expression was now one of awe. The confusion she was feeling must've shown in her eyes, because Draco's eyes suddenly narrowed into a calculating expression.

"You're not from around here, are you?" he asked.

"No, I'm from Tokyo. I am here visiting my cousin." Kagome answered and then paused, remembering what Cho and her friends had called her. "She said I was a muggle."

Draco looked shocked for about five seconds before he suddenly burst out laughing.

"You? A muggle!" he managed to say in between laughs. "Your cousin must be unbelievably stupid!"

Kagome was annoyed now. The kind of annoyed she frequently got when around Inu Yasha, just before she told him to "sit." Cho said that a muggle was a foreigner, which, being from Japan, she was. She had told Draco as much not two seconds ago. So what was so funny?

She gritted her teeth. Unfortunately, Draco was not Inu Yasha and if she suddenly yelled "sit" she'd only end up getting a funny look from the boy. She stood up, suddenly not feeling at all tired.

"What's so funny!" she yelled at him. "Cho said that a muggle was someone foreign and I'm from Japan, so that makes me a muggle, right?"

Draco slowly got up as well.

"Cho?" he asked. "As in Cho Chang?"

Kagome nodded, wondering just how many of Cho's classmates she was going to run into today.

"You know, for a Ravenclaw, that girl is actually quite daft if she thinks you're a muggle." Draco finished brushing off a few blades of grass from his clothes and looked at her. "Oh, and just so you know, 'muggle' is a term for a non-magical person, which as you have just demonstrated, you are not."

"Oh."

Kagome's next question froze on the tip of her tongue when she suddenly sensed a change in the air. The feeling was so familiar, yet there was something very different about it. Very different. Kirara meowed.

"Do you feel it too Kirara?" she asked, looking down. Kirara meowed again.

"Feel what?" asked Draco.

Kagome didn't answer him and instead dashed to the edge of the bush hedge. She scanned the park. Nothing. But yet she knew it was there, she could feel it.

"What is it? Is something wrong?" Draco ran up to her and grabbed her upper arm.

"Yes, I can feel it, but I can't see it," Kagome answered, a touch of panic in her voice. She needed to focus.

She tore away from Draco's grasp and stepped away from him. Then she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She concentrated on the presence she was feeling, tracing it, following the faint essence all the way back to its origin.

Her eyes snapped open and she saw what she was looking for.

"There!" Kagome yelled and pointed in the right direction.

The demonic yaki was seeping through the horizon on the northern part of Hyde Park. It was still fairly far away, but it was getting closer.

"What?" Draco asked with annoyance and squinted his eyes, looking in the direction she was pointing, "I don't see anything!"

"Youkai," Kagome whispered, wishing her luck wouldn't run out and it would be just another old friend popping by to say hello. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, she didn't have that many demon friends.

"Youkai?" Draco repeated, confused. Kagome wished she knew what the word was in English, unfortunately "demon" was not considered a crucial word by her English teacher and so hadn't been on the school syllabus.

"Wait a minute. . . you mean as in demons?" Draco asked slowly. Kagome gave him a blank look and he must've realized she didn't know the word. "You know, like monsters. . . big, mean scary things, grrr." He curled his fingers and motioned with them as if they were claws, which made Kagome giggle.

"Yes," she said, "demons."

He froze mid-grr and stared at her with wide eyes.

"Wait, you're serious, aren't you? You can actually sense demons. . . and they're coming this way?"

Kagome nodded and Draco's hands fell to his sides. Suddenly Kagome remembered that her bag, complete with bow and arrows was still with her cousin, at the other end of the park.

"Kirara," she looked at her old friend, "are you coming?"

Kirara meowed and leaped onto Kagome's shoulder. The moment she landed, Kagome took off. Draco followed.

"Hey, where are you going!" he called after her.

"To get my bow!" she called back.

"Your what?"

"My bow! I left it with my cousin."

Although Kagome was ahead of him, Draco caught up with her and stopped her by grabbing her arm. She glared angrily at him.

"You use a bow?" he asked as he panted for breath.

"Yes."

"Are you a miko?"

Now it was Kagome's turn to stare wide-eyed at him again. How could he know that?

"After Lord Sesshoumaru gave me Kirara here, I went through every book I could find, trying to figure out what kind of a cat she was. I mean, you must admit a cat with two tails is pretty strange. . . and I, well, learned a lot about Japanese culture and stuff. I never thought I'd ever need any of it though. And, wow, the mark. . . you purified it didn't you?"

Kagome however, didn't hear the last bit. She stopped listening after he mentioned Kirara. It suddenly occurred to her that he honestly had no idea what Kirara was; he thought she was just an ordinary cat. Well, an ordinary cat with two tails anyway.

"Kirara. . ." she looked at the cat on her shoulder and asked in Japanese: "you've never transformed for him?"

Kirara looked back sheepishly. Kagome rolled her eyes. Apparently, Draco was in for a bit of a shock.

Just then a chill swept over her like a wave, cutting her to the bone. It felt cold, like death. It reminded her of the dead forest, being trapped in the moth demon's cocoon with her own worse nightmare. She could see the image of a gigantic Naraku looming over her school in Tokyo, laughing at her.

Kagome shivered and then shook her head, pushing the memories back into the furthest parts of her mind. The demons had to be very strong if they were effecting her like this from so far away. She looked back up at Draco and saw worry in his eyes.

"The demons are getting closer," she explained, "we have to hurry."

Kagome didn't wait for his reply before running off again. When she looked back, Draco was running after her, grumbling something about a broom under his breath.

Finally she spotted her cousin by a big stone monument of some sort still talking with her three friends from school. And right beside them, sitting on the grass, was Kagome's bag. Somewhere, she found the energy for an extra burst of speed.

Kagome had enough time to register the four classmates' shocked faces before she knelt on the grass and tore open her bag. She ignored their questions as she frantically pushed stuff aside in order to remove the case with her bow and arrows.

She laid the case down on the grass and listened. Cho and her friends were no longer questioning her. In fact, they were completely silent.

"Lovely, just bloody marvellous," she heard Draco say under his breath, before adding in a louder voice: "Couldn't miss out on the action, could you Scarhead?"

"What do you want Malfoy?" one of the boys spat.

"Leave my cousin alone Malfoy!" Cho yelled.

Kagome opened the case and took the bow out, slinging the quiver of arrows over her left shoulder before she stood up and turned around.

"I wasn't doing anything to her!" Draco yelled back.

"Oh, so why were you chasing her then?" the bushy-haired girl asked angrily.

"Yeah, you don't honestly expect us to believe that you just happened to be jogging through the park in the same direction as a defenceless muggle girl!"

Kagome watched as the dark-haired boy took a step towards Draco. They stood there for a few moments just glaring at each other, reminding Kagome of Inu Yasha and Kouga. Draco had his stick out again and she noticed that the other boy had one in his hand as well. When she looked to the others she saw they all had similar sticks: all pointed at Draco.

Suddenly Draco smirked and took a step back.

"Poor, defenceless muggle, Potter?" he sneered and then looked briefly to Kagome. "You must need new glasses, because if Kagome here's a muggle, then I'm a death eater."

"You are a death eater!" the red-head accused him.

"Actually, Weasel, sorry to disappoint. . ." Draco rolled up his left sleeve, ". . .but no, I'm not."

Cho's friends leaned in to have a closer look.

"B-but I thought Snape said that. . ." the girl, whose name Kagome remembered began with an H, began slowly.

"Snape?" Draco looked taken aback. "Why would Snape say anything to you, unless. . ." A look of comprehension appeared on his face. The rest of the group looked horrified.

Kagome wished she knew what was going on.

Before she could even begin to make sense out of the conversation another cold chill passed over her. Only this time it was stronger and it seemed to communicate with something deep within her soul, something dark. Before her, she suddenly saw the earth open up, baring the fires of hell to the world. Legions of the dead marched on the command of the Tenka Hadou no Tsurugi, their intention to destroy everything in their path. It was hopeless. Kagome watched Inu Yasha and Sesshoumaru battle against the evil sword with no luck. Even the always-composed demon lord was looking haggard. She despaired.

"Inu Yasha," she whispered, her eyes closing shut in an attempt to lock out the image. 'But wait,' something in her mind whispered, 'that's not where it ended.'

Kagome concentrated on the voice in her head and suddenly she remembered the rest. She remembered dashing out of the barrier Miroku was maintaining and onto the edge of a cliff. She remembered firing an arrow at the Tenka Hadou no Tsurugi and watching as the powers of the Tetsuaiga and then the Tenseiga joined it. She remembered lying on her back afterwards, watching the clouds roll by, glad that it was all over.

Someone gently touched her shoulder. Kagome opened her eyes.

"Are you alright, Kagome?" Cho asked her with a worried expression. "Do you need to sit down? Poor dear, running around like that when you're so sick."

Kagome groaned inwardly. Then she noticed Draco watching her, eyebrow raised. She glared at him. He smirked. She glared harder.

"Kagome, do you always carry bow and arrows when you go sightseeing?" the other girl asked. Suddenly Kagome felt all eyes on her.

"Ummm. . . " she couldn't think of a good response to that.

Kirara hopped onto her shoulder and meowed in warning. Reality hit Kagome like a bucket of cold water. She looked in the direction she had seen the yaki before. Her eyes widened. The demons were almost at the park gates.

"Kagome? What- oh Merlin, they're here, aren't they!" Draco asked, fear colouring his voice when he realized what Kagome must be seeing.

"They? Who's they?" Cho asked.

"Yeah Malfoy, who's they?" the red-head took a step towards Draco and shoved the stick in his hand up against the side of his neck. Just then the dark-haired boy hissed and put his hand to his forehead in a gesture of pain. Cho and the other girl gasped.

"Harry!" they cried.

* * *

**Author's notes**:

Translations - Yaki: I couldn't find an English translation for this word. It's the demonic aura (?) that demons radiate. Since all of the main characters on _Inu Yasha_ are people who have either trained to fight demons or are demons (or are Kagome, to whom it comes naturally), I'm assuming that normal people can't sense the yaki. None of the Harry Potter characters have that kind of backround, which is why they can't see or sense it like Kagome.

The Tenka Hadou no Tsurugi: The Sword of World Conquest. It's a demon-possesedsword that used to be carriedby Inu Tashio (Inu Yasha's father).The scene described is from the third _Inu Yasha_ movie.

Anyway, hoped you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!


	4. The Magical Cat

**My apologies** for the delay in updating. They've practically doubled my hours at work, so didn't have as much time. . . plus other things. Anyway, after I got Dark-Huntress's review this morning, I simply couldn't not update. That, and I finished the chapter last night.

I got so many reviews that to respond to everyone individually like I usually do for all my stories would've taken up too much space. Sorry guys. However, I will answer a few questions that popped up:

**First off,** I already have a general plot for this story and there will be no romance in it. So sorry to everyone who was hoping for a Kagome pairing. Besides, she'll have to go back to Japan when everything's over anyway, because she still Naraku to fight (talk about long-distance relationship: several thousand miles and 500 years!). Also, I think she's still quite attached to Inu Yasha. If she was going to pair up with any of the HP boys though, I think she'd be more inclined to pair up with Harry rather than Draco. A friend of mine described her once as having "damsel in distress syndrome" and Harry has "hero syndrome" . . . so I think they'd suit each other very well. ;p

**Secondly,** thanks to everyone who helped with the demon energy/aura thing. Unfortunately there were five or six of you and every one of you said something slightly different. So it didn't really help per say, but it did get me off my ass and made me look up the term. I spent several hours trying to find this on the internet and watched several of the subtitled episodes I have at home and here's the verdict: it's spelt **jyaki **(incidently, not one of my reviewers got that one right, lol). It literally means **"wicked energy"** and it's the magical energy surrounding a demon, like a malicious, demonic aura. It can also be translated as "miasma" or "nauseating fume."

My thanks to ear-tweak. com, where I finally found that little bit of info.

Any other questions you guys had will probably be answered in this chapter. Or in the next one, but a lot of them in this one.

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, you make me want to continue this:** krissy, Ame-Atsume, kireishi-chan, Geasa17, Evil Toilet Paper, nunofyorbiz, storywriter10791, Skye, Aria-Chan, Shadowed Rains (yeah, computers can be a real pain sometimes, can't they? lol!), inuyashas hun, Fuji the Hobbit, Moonjava, emalee, Wytil, lala-girl27, and, of course, Dark-Huntress.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.

* * *

**A Clash of Cultures**

**Chapter 4 -** The Magical Cat

Once again, Kagome was confused.

Harry had a hand to his forehead, at about the spot where Kagome guessed she had noticed the scar earlier, his face contorted in pain. His two friends and Cho were huddled around him, asking what was wrong. They also kept asking about someone . . . although they never actually said a name, just kept asking about "you-know-who" as if they didn't want anyone else to know who they were talking about.

Draco was staring at the group, his face several shades whiter than it had been before.

Kirara growled. Kagome looked down at her and nodded: it was time to go. After all, chances were she was the only one with any powers to fight the demons.

'Although, they can all do magic,' she reasoned, 'so maybe they do know how to fight demons. But I don't have time to explain what's going on. But Draco already knows! And he figured out that I'm a miko, so he must know something about demons. He might be able to help!'

She grabbed Draco by the arm and began dragging him away, towards the jyaki.

"Come on," she said, "they're almost inside the park. We have to stop them!"

Draco allowed himself to be dragged for a bit, until he realized what Kagome was talking about.

"Wait, hang on a bloody minute!" He yelled and tore his arm from her grasp. "That's the Dark Lord you're rushing off to face!"

She never got the chance to answer. Blood-curling screams pierced the stillness of the park. Kagome's eyes widened. They were too late. The demons were in the park.

"Kirara," she looked at the two-tailed cat and pointed up, above the park, "we need to get above them."

"Kagome, Kirara's a cat, how in Merlin's name. . . ?" Draco gaped as a huge fireball suddenly encased his beloved pet. Then the fire disappeared and an enormous sabertooth tiger stood in Kirara's place. It roared once and then looked at the two humans expectantly.

"Draco," Kagome looked at him and smiled, "I would like for you to meet Kirara's demon form."

"Her. . .her what!"

"Kirara is a cat demon."

With that, she jumped up onto Kirara's back.

"Well, are you coming?" she asked impatiently. Draco absently nodded and slowly climbed up behind Kagome.

The second he was seated, Kirara leaped into the air. Draco watched as the ground got further and further away and suddenly he realized they were flying.

"I have a cat that can fly. And is a demon," he muttered under his breath, "and I'm finding this out now!"

Kagome paid no attention to him. Instead she stared intently at the jyaki ahead of them; she could feel it reaching out to her, trying to encase her soul in a bubble of despair. The closer they got to the demons, the stronger she felt its pull. It was different than that of any demon she'd encountered before. She mentally shook off the feeling of hopelessness and concentrated on ignoring the images of her unconscious friends and a red-eyed Inu Yasha.

Draco stiffen behind her. She turned around to see what was wrong.

"I can feel them now," he whispered and when his eyes met hers, Kagome saw fear in them.

"You know what they are," she stated. Draco nodded.

"They're dementors."

Kagome shrugged; she'd never heard of a dementor demon before. She figured they must be native to England. For a moment she wondered, if her magic would even work on them.

'Well, there's only one way to find out,' she decided, 'besides, I can't let those demons kill the people in the park.'

As she looked down she saw people fleeing in terror. It was odd seeing modern-day people with strollers and CD players instead of villagers from Feudal Japan, with the odd pitchfork or other farming tool they were holding when they were attacked and forgot to put down.

Then she caught her first glimpse of the demons.

"Kirara, stop!" she commanded, knowing that her friend would forgive her rudeness.

Kirara did as she was told and hovered above the treetops as Kagome surveyed the scene on the ground.

The dementors, as Draco called them, were unlike any demon she had ever seen. First of all, they had a humanoid shape and were covered by a dark gray hooded cloak. The most she could glimpse of the creatures themselves was a couple of skeletal hands peaking out of the long robes they wore. The jyaki they emanated was incredibly strong and as she noticed several people curled up on the grass, she realized it was probably meant to paralyse or cripple their victims.

One of the English demons knelt down to a heavy-set man. Kagome felt a slight shift in the jyaki and suddenly she could see the man's soul. It shone for a moment, before dimming again and moving up his body. It disappeared. The light of a soul shone inside the demon for an instant, before going out completely.

Kagome gasped in horror when she realized what had just happened.

"The light," she said, "they take the light from a person."

"What?" Draco asked confused, but then saw what Kagome was looking at. "Oh, you mean the soul? Yes, dementors suck the soul out of a human being. It's called a Dementor's Kiss."

"Kiss?"

Draco shrugged. Then something new caught his attention.

"Looks like the aurors are here," he pointed out, "guess that means we can leave then. 'Cause I'm not much good with a Patronus. . ."

Kagome looked back to the ground. Several new figures had suddenly appeared. All of them were dressed in strange-looking robes and were pointing sticks at the demons. She assumed they were sorcerers like Draco and her cousin.

She sat back and watched, honestly curious as to just how those pathetic-looking sticks could be used as weapons. She heard them shout something and a slivery-white smoke emerged out of the sticks, morphing into animal shapes that ran at the demons.

The dementors shrieked and Kagome felt a chill go down her spine. It was a horrible, bone-chilling sound. She frowned however, when she noticed that none of them were destroyed, only scattered.

There was another chorus of shouts from the sorcerers and more animals charged into battle. But yet again, they disintegrated before they did any real damage.

"What are those baka's doing?" she asked out loud. "They're driving them back into the city!"

From her position, she could see some of the dementors changing direction, part of the group heading towards the palace, some trying to circle around the sorcerers from the side and the rest heading back towards the populated streets of London.

"What are you talking about?" Draco asked. "The Patronus charm is the best defence against dementors."

"But it's not doing anything!" She gestured at the scene. "It's not destroying them, only sending them off in three different directions."

"Hmm. . . so it is."

"Kirara, could you get closer, please?" Kagome asked and Kirara immediately responded, knowing through years of experience what the best aiming distance was for the miko sitting on her back.

Kagome slid an arrow out of her quiver and brought her bow up to eye level. Carefully she aimed at the group of dementors who were now crossing the street, heading towards a small cafe and souvenir shop. She concentrated on the wood she was holding in her hands, feeling her powers wrap themselves around the arrow.

She let go and her arrow sliced through the air.

* * *

Yes, I'm aware that cliffhanger's evil. And that the chapter is really short: from now on, the chapters will be rather short, because the action's picking up. 

Anyway, please review! Proper motivation may get the next chapter up in just a couple of days. ; )


	5. The Priestess

**Wow**, once again I was amazed at how many reviews I got: 13 were on the same day I updated alone! Half of which told me I was evil. grins Glad the cliff hanger was well done. However, the reason that chapter was so short, was, well partially so that I could finally update, but mostly because, as you're about to notice, I've switched points of view.

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed:** otakualways, Helen, lala-girl27, shangxiang10, The Violent Tomboy, pitbull123, Raiyevern, å†°, montrith, Kyokorain, midnight, KC, Fuji the Hobbit, Evil Toilet Paper (sorry, nope, don't know any other HP/IY crossover fics - most of the fics I read were BTVS x-overs), Angel of Mercy, Diana Artemis Silvermoon, inuyashas hun, kris, kitsunekilala, dragondolphin1990, Shadowed Rains, Aubrin Xerva,

I had sorta hoped that I was writing Draco mostly in-character, but, alas, too many people seem to think otherwise. Oh well, I don't think I could have worked him into this story as easily as I did if I had written him differently and no one seems to really mind. Plus, I'm apparently doing a pretty good job at all the other character, so I guess that makes up for it.

I was also rather surprised at how many of you liked the idea that I wasn't including romance in my fic (not everyone, but most of those who commented seemed happy about it anyway). Honestly, I just don't write romance. Which is odd, because I'm a hopeless romantic at heart, hmmm. . .

Disclaimer: I do not own any of this and if it wasn't so late, I'd probably think of something more interesting to say here.

* * *

**A Clash of Cultures**

**Chapter 5** - The Priestess

Harry Potter grabbed his head and hissed in pain. And Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger's hearts stopped beating for about three seconds.

"Harry!" they cried at the same time.

"What is it? What's wrong?" asked Cho, her voice full of worry.

"Is it You-Know-Who?" Ron asked.

"You-Know-Who!" Cho cried, her eyes going wide. "You mean Harry really does have a link to him?"

"Yes, he does," Hermione quickly explained, "and it only acts up if You-Know-Who is either feeling a very strong emotion, or is close by."

"Oh Merlin! Harry, are you alright?"

"He's close by," Harry managed to gasp.

"He's here, in the park!"

"I. . .I think so. . . I'm not sure."

"Umm. . . where did Malfoy go?" Hermione asked.

"Probably off to join his daddy in his muggle-killing," Ron spat.

"More to the point, where's Kagome?" Cho was looking about her wildly, her eyes wide in fear that was steadily giving way to panic. Suddenly, Hermione grabbed her shoulder.

"Look, there they go!" she pointed into the distance, where Kagome and Draco were running towards the other end of the park.

"She's probably a death eater too and this was all a trap to lure us out," Ron said, his eyes narrowing after the retreating figures.

"Weasley, first of all, she's from Japan and You-Know-Who's supporters are mostly from Europe. Secondly, I think I would've noticed if she was a death eater, seeing as how she's living with me and constantly wears short sleeves. Thirdly, we had no idea you were going to be here and you didn't know we were going to be here. Besides of which, I know for a fact that her family are all muggles."

"Well, Malfoy seemed to think otherwise," Harry pointed out, the little bit of occlumancy Dumbledore had taught him so far in the summer was helping him deal with the pain from his scar.

"You don't suppose You-Know-Who's figured out a way to make the Dark Mark invisible, do you?" Hermione mused. "But if that was the case, Kagome would've made a perfect spy. Why would they want to give that up? No, Cho's right, it doesn't make sense."

"Well, if Kagome's a muggle then she's in even worse danger if You-Know-Who's here. Not to mention that she's with the ferret." Everyone looked to Ron as what he said sunk in.

"Oh my God," said Hermione, "he's right."

"Come on, we've got to rescue her!" Harry said.

"Well, at least she's got her bow and arrows with her," Cho commented as the group took off.

Hermione gave Cho an odd look and hesitated for a moment before running off after her friends. Even as she ran, the look on her face indicated that the wheels in her head were whirling around at the speed of light, processing this new information.

She was about to comment, when loud screams pierced the air. The group stopped dead.

"Oh Merlin, they're here!" Cho exclaimed, grabbing Harry's arm for support. Hermione rolled her eyes at the Ravenclaw.

Harry was the first to feel it. His blood froze when he felt the first whispers of darkness invade his mind.

"Dementors," he whispered. He then flinched when Cho's hand dug painfully into his arm.

"Dementors? My cousin's headed for a group of dementors!"

"Good thing we practiced the Patronus like we did last year," Ron as the group took off again.

They didn't get very far though. Suddenly two figures apparated in front of them.

"And just where do you think you're running off to?" asked Tonks fiercely, her green hair taking away somewhat from the authoritative stance she was probably hoping to achieve.

"My cousin," Cho cried, by now fully panicking, "she ran off in the direction of the dementors with Malfoy!"

"Malfoy!" Mad-Eye Moody barked. "Are you sure she's not a death eater?"

"Oh for Merlin's sake we've already been over this! No, Kagome most certainly is not a death eater. In fact, she's a muggle. I think she met Malfoy earlier in the park. I wasn't with her though, so I don't know how that happened."

"Don't worry, we'll keep an eye out for her," Tonks nodded, "now you four stay with Moody. I'm going to go help with the dementors."

"Hey, but we can help!" Ron protested.

"Not this time Weasley," Moody silenced him and Tonks vanished with a 'pop.' Then he took a bright purple sock out of his pocket and held it out to them. "Now, each of you grab hold of this.

Reluctantly, they all grabbed hold of the sock. The ex-auror looked at his watch.

"Right well, this should activate in 5. . .4. . .3. . .2. . .1. . .hey, what-"

All it had taken was a look for Harry and Ron to agree on a course of action, and so at the very last moment, they let go of the sock. Now they were both standing in the middle of Hyde Park, watching as people ran towards them.

"You know," Ron began thoughtfully, "if we survive this, mum's going to kill me."

"Better your mum than Voldemort," Harry laughed and the two wizards dashed straight towards whatever it was that was making the muggles run.

* * *

Meanwhile, Tonks was trying to fend off dementors, who were currently circling around the aurors in order to get at them from the side.

When she had arrived in the park there had been about three dozen dementors and only a dozen aurors. But Moody was on his way back to 12 Grimauld Place, so she expected Order members to begin arriving soon.

And they were going to need them.

The battle was already in full swing. Patroni flew, galloped and swam towards the dementors. Tonks jumped right in and sent her own iguana scampering into the fray.

It was working; the dementors were retreating and some of the muggles who had been laying on the grass in balls of hopeless misery were slowly getting up and wobbling away. But suddenly the dementors weren't retreating at all and were instead coming at them from the side. Tonks sent off another patronus.

Their side of the park was empty now, save for a few individuals sitting and staring into space with empty eyes. Tonk's head whirled towards the outskirts of the park, as the loud screech of car breaks carried over to her over the shouts of aurors.

"Merlin's beard, they've gotten to the street!" she yelled. The auror in charge heard her; she looked at her, nodded and then started barking orders to others. Tonks left her to it and sent another Patronus at a trio of dementors, who were getting a little too close.

Tonks wasn't concentrating as well as she should have. Her patronus was weakening as her mind was now preoccupied with thinking about the amount of people walking the London streets. Dark thoughts began fluttering through her mind. Her cousin's funeral, the Dark Mark floating proudly in the air above a small country house, where a family of seven had been slaughtered, the body of a new recruit she had led into battle against a group of death eaters laying lifelessly on the ground. . .

She looked in the direction of the street again just in time to be blinded by a bright light. Dementor screeching filled the air. It was a hideous sound, like the creatures themselves. But it was the distraction she needed to get her thoughts under control again. Turning her full attention back to the dementors in front of her, she noticed they seemed to be somewhat hesitant and unsure about something.

But Tonks wasn't. She raised her wand and concentrated on her happy memory.

Her mouth opened, ready to chant _Expecto Patronus _when suddenly a white light seemed to hurl itself at the dementors in front of her. Tonks gaped as she watched them disintegrate before her eyes.

All that remained in their place was an arrow.

Slowly, she put her wand down and walked up to the arrow. She noticed it was angled so that it appeared to have been shot from above. Putting a hand to her face to shield her eyes from the sun, she looked up at the sky.

She wasn't quite sure what she had been expecting to see, but a flying cat with two figures sitting on its back certainly wasn't it.

Just then the person sitting in front raised a bow and aimed an arrow at the ground. Tonks saw long, black hair and guessed it was a girl. The moment the arrow left the girl's hand it began glowing and the farther away from her it went, the more light gathered around it, until it looked like a pillar of light careening towards the ground. It cut through a group of dementors and they disintegrated, just like the ones in front of Tonks had.

"Who in Merlin's name is that?" asked a familiar voice from beside her. She turned to Remus Lupin, grateful that the Order's forces had finally arrived.

"Hey, that's Kagome!" an even more familiar voice cried. Tonks frowned.

"Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley! I thought I told you to stay with Moody!"

The two boys looked a little sheepish.

"We wanted to help," Ron said.

"Voldemort's close," Harry added, "I figured you could use all the help you could get. Besides, we figured Cho might want someone looking out for her cousin."

"Though, it seems she doesn't need any help- Blimey, did you just see that!" Ron watched with wide eyes as Kagome's arrow destroyed another batch of dementors, this time one that were heading towards the palace.

Suddenly, Harry grabbed his scar again and hissed. There was blood on his hand when he took it away.

"Harry, we have to get you out of here!" Lupin said, pushing the two boys away from the others. They never did find out just how he was planning to do that though.

"Watch out!" Tonks screamed up at Kagome despite the fact that the girl probably couldn't hear her.

Luckily, the cat she was sitting on swirled away just in time to avoid the sickly green Avada Kadavra that had been heading in their direction.

"Did you see that?" Lupin gaped. "That curse must've had incredible power behind it to appear so clearly."

"Professor," Ron gulped, eyes wide in fear, "are you saying that You-Know-Who could actually be here?"

"I don't know Ron, I really don't know. But it looks like it."

Just then popping sounds erupted all around them. Harry scanned the area. All he saw were black robes and white masks: they were surrounded. The only way out was to fight.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw a group of death eaters throwing curses at the cat in the sky. He was actually amazed at the agility with which it avoided getting hit. If the cat had played quidditch, it would've made an amazing seeker.

Unfortunately, it didn't see the killing curse coming at it from behind until it was too late. The cat roared in pain and staggered a bit in the air, before falling to the ground.

He guessed that the figure in black that lost its grip and fell limply to the ground was probably Draco Malfoy.

* * *

Well, there it is, another chapter done! Hope you liked it! Now please review!

P.S. When I said there'd be short chapters from now on, I meant I have the story planned out in intervals, but the actual length of the chapters will depend on how my muse hits and how productive she is. Though I doubt I'll have any of my 10+ page chapters from now on in this story.


	6. The Dark Lord

**Remember** when I said that chapter lengths were going to depend on my muse. Well. . . this time my muse decided that we needed an 11-page chapter to make up for not updating in a long time. He he. Sorry 'bout that guys. Work, my other fic and life (yes, I was also quite surprised to find out I had one) got in the way. I also had some problems with the last part. It's still not perfect, but hopefully it's not horrible.

The jyaki thing is apparently still a bit problematic. I accidentally came upon something on ear-tweak . com that helped. So it turns out, that both jyaki and youki are more or less right. **Jyaki** means "wicked energy" and **youki** means "youkai (spirit) energy." I'm not quite sure what the distinction between the two is, since their usage seems to be more or less the same. However, since I'm most familiar with jyaki and mostly because I've already used it in the story, I will continue to use it. Dementors aren't actually youkai anyway, so it fits. Actually no, wait, I tell a lie, I did use youki once in this chapter because Kagome was specifically looking to see if the death eaters were youkai.

And once again, for those of you who have apparently not been paying attention to the author's notes: this story will not have any pairings in it! I mean Kagome will obviously have made some new friends after this, but that's all.

**Thanks a bunch for reviewing:** chinadoll27, Saori Aki Orimi, sailor-saturn550, Kc, Samantha, shadows stalk in the night, Hikagi, lala-girl27, Evil Toilet Paper, kira, otakualways, inuyashas hun, Kaggy-chan2202, Natsumi Tsuchi-Ookami, Midnightwolf223, felinevampirewitch, dragondolphin1990, ForestSprite (lol, I like your muse; does she always carry a sledgehammer, or was it a rubber mallat?), Wytil, Harm Marie, nania, Mel0Yel0#03, Shadowed Rains (so you do loon imitations, eh? now that's a neat party trick), shangxiang10, The Violent Tomboy, Spelling Mistake/IYWriterGirl (wow, to say I'm flattered is a major understatement - thank you), lunar-blood-rose, Fuji the Hobbit, dark huntress, Talia Moon (well, someone is showing up in this chapter. . .), CuriousDreamWeaver, iygurl, tuskimiko, Shavaineth (I also really like Kirara, hence why's she's in this fic. . . as for what happens to everyone, well, you'll just have to wait and see), Kyokorain, Diana Artemis Silvermoon, kurishii, Moonjava and xHikari-808x.

Disclaimer: I solemnly swear that I own no part of this fic.

* * *

A Clash of Cultures

Chapter 6 - The Dark Lord

Kagome slowly opened her eyes. Her head hurt. She experimentally moved her arm and groaned. If the pain was any indication, she was definitely alive.

Her groan was answered with a pained meow. Suddenly everything came rushing back to her.

'Oh, right, we got hit with some sort of curse and fell,' she remembered.

Gathering all her strength, she slowly managed to pull herself up so that she was kneeling on the grass. She braced her hands on her thighs for a moment, waiting for the world to stop spinning around her. She heard voices shouting in the distance and felt energies clash together, but somehow couldn't figure out why.

Finally everything around her settled down and she could raise her head without falling down. The first thing she saw was Kirara laying on her side in her kitten form a few feet away. She looked at Kagome with sad eyes and meowed again.

Kagome crawled to her youkai friend's side and petted her. Kirara leaned into the touch.

"Oh, Kirara, you're hurt," Kagome whispered, "you won't be able to fight anymore, will you?"

Kirara meowed sadly and then rested her head back down.

Kagome looked up and spied her bow lying a bit further away next to an unmoving form covered in black robes.

'Draco,' she realized.

Suddenly a bush to her left exploded in a bright array of light. Kagome's head snapped to watch little bits of it fall to the ground. She turned her head to look behind her and got her first glimpse of what looked like a battlefield.

It was different from any battlefield she had ever seen before though.

She recognized one group of people as the ones she had seen from above fighting the demons, but now there seemed to be more of them. However, she was absolutely positive the black robed figures hadn't been there before. There were so many of them.

They had white masks covering their faces, so Kagome couldn't tell what they looked like. She couldn't feel any youki coming from them though, so she assumed they were human. Actually, their auras were similar to Cho and Draco's, except darker.

And when one of them stood still for a few moments, she could see that, like Draco, they too had marks made with dark magic on their forearms.

What Kagome found most fascinating though, was that all of them were using the same sticks Draco had. She had no idea what the lights coming out of them were for, but assumed they were spells or curses of some sort.

'What an interesting way to fight with magic,' she thought as she watched a green-haired woman send her opponent flying into the bushes.

Not far from the woman another masked man (it was too burly to be a woman) pointed his stick at a slender, blond man. A green light shot out of it and hit the blond directly in the middle of the chest. Kagome gasped when he fell like a leaf to the ground. She saw his soul escape from his body and knew he was dead.

'I have to help,' she decided and her eyes narrowed in determination. Not caring how sore her body felt, she stood up and stiffly moved towards Draco to retrieve her bow.

'I hope he's alright,' she thought, suddenly realizing Draco still hadn't moved. Worry driving her movements, she almost managed to sprint towards the blond.

He was laying on the ground, arms spread out from body as if he was about to embrace the sky that his eyes were staring at. Just from the awkward angle of his neck, Kagome knew. Draco was dead.

The sounds of the battle behind her faded out until they seemed to become only a dull murmur. Mesmerized, she stared at his face. The world around her evaporated and all her mind saw were his unseeing eyes and partially opened lips.

It wasn't that she hadn't seen death before; she'd seen entire villages slaughtered by demons. She couldn't even remember all the gruesome scenes she'd witnessed: battlefields covered in not only dead bodies, but body parts strewn in every direction. There was a lot of blood and gore when demons were involved.

When she stopped having nightmares about it, she had figured she had finally gotten used to it, that somehow her mind had become numb to the sight of death.

But this was different. She knew the name of the blond laying on the grass in front of her. For a little while he had been something of a friend.

Images of Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Inu Yasha and Kouga flashed through her mind. Then she thought of Sesshoumaru.

'Was this why he brought Rin back to life with Tenseiga?' she wondered. 'That somehow she had become more than just another human? That she had become a living being, a child, to him?'

Kagome smiled briefly to herself. It'd probably be easier to get Inu Yasha and Kouga to sit at a table and share a nice, quiet cup of tea together than getting any answers out of the demon lord.

She shook her head and reached for her bow.

'Come on Kagome, enough of this,' she chided herself, 'you can't help Draco, but there are other people you can help!'

Suddenly two pairs of arms grabbed her from behind and lifted her to her feet. Kagome yelped in surprise.

"Well, well, and what do we have here?" a rough male voice sneered maliciously.

"Hmm, she doesn't look like much," the other one said.

Kagome tried to get a good look at the two men holding her, but they were wearing those white masks over their faces. It was slightly unnerving. Kagome began to struggle in earnest.

'Dammit, where is Inu Yasha when I need him?' she asked herself. At the same time, however, she promised herself that if she made it out of this alive, she'd make sure to never, ever even breathe of this to him. He'd probably use it as proof that it was too dangerous for him to let her out of his sight ever again.

"Let me go!" she yelled.

"I don't think so," a third voice chuckled. Kagome looked up into a third masked face. "You've caused us quite a bit of trouble. The Dark Lord himself wishes to express his displeasure."

'I wonder if it's the same Dark Lord Draco talked about?' Kagome wondered. 'It has to be, these men all have the same mark on their arms.'

The third man walked to Draco and knelt down to take a good look at the body. His right hand froze inches away from the blonde's face.

"Merlin's damnation!" he whispered, sounding somewhat shocked. Then he suddenly sprang to his feet and turned around to face the rest of the sorcerers.

Kagome cursed herself for not noticing the battle was over. She spied the boy with glasses she had met with her cousin standing in the middle of a group of people surrounded by the masked men, all pointing those magic sticks at them. The red head was standing next to him and both were glaring at the dark figures surrounding them.

As Kagome scanned the crowd, she suddenly became very frightened. Cho wasn't among them.

'Maybe she was smart and ran away from the demons,' she hoped.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the man who had knelt over Draco's body. He was calling someone's name.

"Lucius!" he suddenly shouted so loudly that Kagome's ears rang from the noise. She shook her head and gazed at him curiously, knowing that there had to be some sort of trick to it.

Then she noticed yet another masked figure joining them. He carried himself differently than the other one though: his movements were regal and precise, almost elegant if it weren't for the hideous mask he was wearing.

"Avery, you had better have a very good reason for shouting my name in front of all these people," he growled.

"It's. . . well, it's her accomplice," the other masked man- Avery- said carefully.

"Is he dead?"

"Yes sir, yes he is."

"And? I fail to see the problem here."

"Well, umm. . . it's rather confusing you see, but . . ."

"Spit it out man, I don't have all day and neither does the Dark Lord!"

"It's.. . he's. . . your son. . . D-Draco is dead."

Kagome's eyes widened; she stared at the new arrival. This was Draco's father?

"Well, that explains why he didn't come when he was summoned," the man holding Kagome's left arm muttered.

"This has to be a trick," Draco's father finally said quietly, almost as if he wasn't really intending anyone else to hear. Then more loudly he added: "My son would never betray me. Besides, the pain from the Dark Mark would've prevented him from refusing a summons."

His last comment confused Kagome. She thought back to when she had purified Draco's mark. She remembered feeling a connection to a greater power, she had had to sever the link to it, although at the time she was acting on pure instinct. Were all the marks connected to this one well of darkness? Was it this Dark Lord? Was he like Naraku and used the marks as a way to control his minions, making them a part of himself?

As she was pondering the marks, Draco's father just stood there, looking down on his son. Then his head slowly began to turn to Kagome. Her throat went dry. She couldn't even see his eyes, but she could feel the cold glare he was giving her and felt a chill crawl down her spine. Then he advanced on her.

The next thing she knew, there was a hand around her throat and breathing was a chore.

"Who are you?" the owner of the hand asked in a quietly dangerous voice that reminded Kagome a bit of Sesshoumaru. Except that Inu Yasha's older brother would never sully his hands with a mere human.

"Ka-kagome Higurashi," she answered.

"Now tell me, Kagome, what did you do to my son? Did you curse him with Imperio? Hmmm?"

'Imperi-what?' Kagome gave him a blank look.

"Don't play games with me girl!"

Furious, the man tore his mask off his face and treated her to a full-on version of the glare she had only been feeling up 'till now. The resemblance was amazing: he looked like an older version of Draco, with longer hair. He practically radiated dark power and his eyes glittered dangerously.

Someone who didn't fight large, hungry demons on a daily basis would have probably found him quite terrifying. Unfortunately, while Kagome was certainly intimidated, she was quite a bit shy of being utterly terrified.

"I know my son! He is a Malfoy and he would never betray the family name voluntarily. You did something to him, now tell me what it was! You are the reason my son is dead!"

Kagome's eyes narrowed.

"The reason your son is dead is because we were attacked!" she yelled back at him. "If you hadn't tried to hit us with your magic spells then he would still be alive! Your people killed Draco . . ."

Her left cheek exploded in pain as the blond man backhanded her.

"You insolent mudblood, how dare you talk back to me! I will show you magic spells. . ."

"Dear Merlin!" the masked man who was not holding Kagome suddenly exclaimed. "This. . . this is impossible! Lucius, come and get a look at this!"

Lucius stopped mid-rant and glared at Avery. However, the later wasn't paying any attention to him and was instead staring at Draco's arm. A puzzled expression fleeted across Lucius's face before it was replaced by an annoyed one.

"What is it?" he snarled as he walked to Avery and looked over his shoulder. His eyes suddenly flew wide open and froze in a hilariously flabbergasted expression.

Then as one, the four robed figures surrounding Kagome hissed in pain. The grips on her arms tightened and she saw Lucius and the other man in front of her grab their forearms.

"It would seem that we have kept the Dark Lord waiting for too long," Lucius said and turned on his heel, striding off to where a circle had now been formed by the dark-robed sorcerers. In the middle of the circle stood the ones who had fought against them.

Kagome wasn't really all that surprised to find herself being shoved towards the centre of that circle. As they approached, a gap was formed in the circle to allow them to pass.

Once inside the circle, Kagome was given one last shove that sent her tumbling to the ground beside Cho's friends.

"Kagome!" one of them called and within seconds someone was helping her to her feet. She looked up into a pair of worry-filled, emerald eyes. "Are you ok?"

Kagome nodded, noting happily that she hadn't dropped her bow anywhere. She quickly glanced behind her and cursed silently at having only two arrows left. Not that they would've helped her all that much against the sorcerers around her. There were too many of them.

"That was wicked how you killed the dementors!" the red-head said enthusiastically. "I've never heard of anything like it; what kind of spell was it?"

"Yesss, that iss a quessstion I would alsso rather like to have ansswered," came a quiet, raspy voice that made her skin crawl and reminded Kagome of a snake demon Inu Yasha had once fought with.

The redhead's face paled considerably as his eyes widened.

Kagome turned to study the new arrival. The first thing that occurred to her was that she wasn't all that far off with the snake demon analogy. His skin was an inhuman shade of green-gray and his facial features looked as if someone had smashed his face repeatedly into a concrete wall and let them heal that way. Although he was wearing a long black robe, with the hood up, Kagome could tell he was bald.

What stood out the most about him, however, were his eyes.

Like two round orbs they glowed red at her from within the shade of his hood. They looked demonic, like Sesshoumaru's eyes when he got furious enough to transform. Kagome didn't even have to concentrate in order to see his aura; it surrounded him like a shroud of shadows even now, when he wasn't casting any spells.

It was faint, but she could feel jyaki emanating from him.

"You are the Dark Lord?" she asked.

Dark chuckles came from the masked figures surrounding her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw her co-captives staring at her with bewildered expressions on their faces. The red-eyed man merely raised an eyebrow. Or what would've been an eyebrow, had there been any hair on his head.

"Such ignorance is something I would expect from a muggle," he said after the chuckling had died down. "But you have already demonstrated that you are no muggle."

"I-I am not from here," Kagome explained, hoping she might still save herself from looking like a complete idiot, "I am visiting from Japan."

"Oh, but I can assure you that the Japanese Wizarding World has also heard of me."

Kagome frowned, confused yet again.

"Wizarding World?" she asked, regretting it instantly.

The Dark Lord's eyes narrowed.

"You'd be well advised not to play ignorant with me. Destroying dementors requires a considerable amount of magic, not to mention knowledge of some very obscure spells." He turned to Lucius. "What of her companion?"

"He is dead my Lord," the blond-haired sorcerer answered with a slight bow.

"Do you know who he is?"

Lucius hesitated, considering his answer for a moment. He was saved from answering by the sorcerer standing next to him.

"Mi'lord, it was young Draco Malfoy," Kagome recognized the man's voice as being the one who had first recognized Draco.

"What!"

"It would appear that not only is he a traitor, but he must also have been working with the Order of the Phoenix."

"Explain. What makes you think this?"

"His mark, it.. . it was gone. Dumbledore must've finally figured out how to remove it."

"Fool! There is no way to remove the Dark Mark!"

The Dark Lord's eyes flashed dangerously as he glared at his minion.

"He's telling the truth," another white mask stepped forward, "I saw his forearms: they were unmarked."

Kagome saw the redhead nudge his friend.

"So the ferret _was _initiated," he whispered.

"But then how did he get rid of the Dark Mark?" the other boy whispered back. "The death eaters don't seem to know what's going on either."

"And Malfoy certainly does not work for the Order!" The redheads features twisted in disgust at the mere thought of Draco belonging to whatever it was they were talking about.

"Hang on," the green-haired witch Kagome had noticed during the battle interrupted them, "are you saying you saw Malfoy earlier and he didn't have the Dark Mark?"

She seemed completely astonished. The boys nodded.

"He said. . ." suddenly the small one with glasses paused and his brow furrowed in thought. "He said that. . . that if he's a death eater, then Kagome's a muggle!"

The three of them stared at Kagome. Kagome felt her cheeks begin to burn.

"I didn't know it was impossible to remove," she smiled sheepishly.

Now the three were openly gaping. As were a few individuals who were standing nearby and had heard the entire conversation. Unfortunately, this included the Dark Lord.

"What did you jusst ssssay girl?" he hissed. Kagome gulped. "Do you expect me to believe that a pathetic mudblood like you managed to remove my mark?"

Kagome frowned, her eyes narrowing.

'Pathetic? I'm pathetic?' she thought, getting angrier by the second. 'This guy's just as human as me, but I'm pathetic!'

Her thoughts skidded to a halt and Kagome looked at the Dark Lord again, really looked.

'He really is human. Mortal. There isn't one bit of demon in him. . . but his power's not quite natural either. . .'

"Answer me, girl!" the Dark Lord now hollered at her, clearly getting quite agitated. Then he pointed his magic stick at her and Kagome the build up of magical power in his aura came so fast and unexpected, that Kagome had no time to react properly.

"Crucio," she thought she heard him whisper before a yellowish beam of light hit her full on in the chest.

Pain. She felt her muscles contract as if they were being stabbed repeatedly by sharp needles. And some sadistic bastard was twisting the needles that were already embedded underneath her skin. She was almost certain that there was a world around her, but it no longer mattered. All that mattered was somehow getting away from the pain, to tearing herself away from her own body and the fire that was consuming it alive.

It stopped as abruptly as it had started, leaving Kagome twitching on the ground wondering how in the world she had ended up on the ground.

"Oh Merlin, Kagome, are you all right?" she heard a voice ask. Soon her vision cleared and she identified the voice as belonging to the redhead. Kagome nodded weakly.

Then she noticed that his friend was yelling at the Dark Lord.

"Leave her out of this! She has nothing to do with any of it; I'm your opponent!" Kagome smiled at how much this boy reminded her of Inu Yasha. Except for the hair. . . and the glasses . . . and well, just about everything else.

"Oh don't worry Harry, your turn to die will come soon enough," the Dark Lord answered, chuckling.

'Oh, right, his name is Harry,' Kagome thought. She felt light-headed, detached from her surroundings, as if she were only an observer in her own body. 'And his friend's name is. . . I think it starts with an 'R' . . . Rick, Rom, no Ron. . . that's it: Ron!'

"Can you stand?" she heard a new voice ask her at the same time as a set of arms pulled her up into a sitting position.

For a minute she felt disoriented again, but that passed and Kagome looked into two worried eyes she hadn't met before.

She stared into his eyes for a moment. There was something there. He looked completely human, yet Kagome was sure she saw something distinctly familiar in his eyes. And it most certainly wasn't human.

'Could he be a vessel for some sort of demon?' she wondered and then looked at his aura. While it looked similar to the other sorcerers' auras, there was something darker in it as well. But this wasn't a taint in the aura caused by dark magic; it was a part of him. Again, Kagome couldn't help feeling it looked somewhat familiar.

The man the eyes belonged to looked to be in his early forties, although the gray hairs that ran through his shaggy mop of light brown hair made him look older. His face looked kind. . . and was currently turning red and Kagome realized she had been staring.

She looked away, embarrassed and began to slowly stand up, leaning on her bow for support.

'The last thing I need is someone else for Inu Yasha to think he needs to fight because of me,' she scolded herself, 'Kouga is more than enough for me. And here I thought it was dogs and cats that weren't supposed to get along, not dogs and wolves. . ."

Kagome's eyes widened. She whirled around to study the man who had helped her up again.

There it was. That's what was so familiar.

"Wolf," she whispered.

The man's confused expression turned into surprise and then fear. He took a step away from her. This in turn confused Kagome.

'If he's a wolf, why is he running? These are humans he's fighting . . . why is he afraid?'

"So, what isss your decission?" the cold voice of the Dark Lord interrupted her thoughts. "Will you co-operate or do I have to convince you? And I assure you the curse you just felt is the least of what awaits you if you do not co-operate."

Kagome's heart was racing. She didn't know how to explain her powers, not that the sorcerer could use them anyway.

"My Lord, may I?" Lucius asked, bowing courteously to the red-eyed monstrosity that was his master.

"Of course, Lucius, by all means. You have a son to avenge, after all."

Lucius straightened and turned to Kagome with a menacing smile. He flicked his wand and said something under his breath. She cried out at the sudden pain in her left leg. Her hand shot out to grab at her thigh. She looked down: there was a deep gash running diagonally on her leg.

Another flick. A second gash appeared on her leg and Kagome screwed her eyes shut against the pain as she fell to the ground. Once she had composed herself a bit, she looked up at Lucius defiantly.

"Leave her alone Malfoy!" the wolf cried as he stepped in front of her.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Lucius appeared amused at this new development. "Remus Lupin, how lovely to see you again. Tell me how are you faring without your dog-I mean friend?"

'A dog and wolf friends! What weird parallel universe have I stepped into?' Kagome wondered.

She looked around. The white-masked sorcerers formed an impenetrable wall around her and the group she was with. The group themselves looked as if they were trying to appear defiant, but she could tell they were all frightened. A few of them had defeat written across their faces, as if they knew they were going to die. Harry had clenched fists and looked as if he was desperately trying to figure out how to turn the tables and still come out on top.

Inu Yasha had won against greater odds. But Inu Yasha was half-demon and had the Tetsuaiga.

Kagome looked back to the adults who were snarling at each other.

"Get out of the way you mangy wolf or. . ." Lucius was saying. Lupin never got the chance to respond.

"Who are you callin' a mangy wolf!" someone called from behind them.

Kagome's head snapped around at the familiar voice. She gasped.

There were four figures standing on the other side of the wall of sorcerers. Two of them waved at her.

"Hey Kagome-neechan!"

"Are you alright, Kagome-neechan?"

* * *

Ok, well, here it is. And the next chapter is actually already written. However, it's possibly the shortest chapter I've ever written, so I'll make a deal with you guys. I'm posting it just as soon as I get, let's say. . . 15 review, ok? I'm thinking that shouldn't take too long with this story.

Author's Note: I know I mentioned Inu Yasha fighting a snake demon. Before you all go searching, trying to figure out where he did that, I just thought I'd let you know that I have no idea if it actually happened. I just sort of figured that even if the show didn't show it happening then it's still entirely possible that at some point in time the Inu group came upon one.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review!


	7. The Stranger

**Holy crap!** 23 reviews in 8 hours is completely beyond my expectations! I love you guys, I really do! (grins widely)

Now I feel bad for the shortness of this chapter. . . but I did promise, so I'm not taking more time to make it longer. It's really more of a teaser than a chapter, but I wanted to post it separately. Besides, it ends on such a wonderful cliffhanger. I love cliffhangers! (have you noticed?) ;p

As for the four people who appeared in the last chapter, I was going to just clear up who they were, since I figured it was kinda obvious (well three of them anyway, the fourth might take a bit of deep thinking to figure out, although when you do find out it might seem kinda obvious). However, there were enough people who didn't seem to figure it out, so I'll just leave that 'till the next chapter.

**Thanks for reviewing:** Helen (one of your questions will be sort of answered in this chapter and as for the other two. . . let's just say they are things I've thought about), Shadows stalk during the deep of night (yup, it's those two), Inuyasha's hun (yes, that's them), i laugh at you (love the user name!), JennyTheWhiteWolf, The Violent Tomboy, Shavaineth (you'll just have to wait and see), iygurl, Chibigreen, animewolfgurl, fluorescentpinkfairies (I'm flattered, thanks. . . and you're welcome), shangxiang10, Lady Sunflower (lol, I feel special. . . and yep, it's them), MikoKyikou, bijop, chinadoll27, Shadowed Rains, Silver Kayasha, Moonjava, Diana Artemis Silvermoon, IYWriterGirl (oh yeah, he's definitely one of them), Wytil and Fuji the Hobbit (I'm flattered).

Disclaimer: I own nothing. . . _except the plot. (_looks pointedly at Diana Artemis Silvermoon, then grins)

* * *

A Clash of Cultures

Chapter 7 - The Stranger

Throughout the comotion caused by the Dark Lord, Draco's broken body lay forgotten on the ground.

Only Kirara seemed to notice it. She glanced at it sadly before using all her remaining strength to crawl over to the boy she'd spent the last ten years with. She collapsed with her head on top of his cold, unbeating heart.

She watched the wizards with tired eyes. When she smelt the wolves approaching, she finally closed her eyes, knowing Kagome would be safe.

Right now she needed to sleep, to regain her strength and recover from the curse.

No one noticed the stranger walking through the park. He didn't look left, nor right, but always straight ahead of him. He passed the dead humans as well as ones who were just staring into space with soulless eyes and didn't even glance in their direction. As if they didn't matter.

In retrospect they would all wonder just how it was possible that they hadn't noticed him. In the mostly deserted park he stuck out like a flame in a dark room, not that he was someone most people tended to overlook in the first place.

Especially Kagome would later wonder why she hadn't sensed him so close.

* * *

Kirara opened her eyes in time to see the stranger standing over her and Draco. 

He drew his sword.

* * *

Yes, yes, this chapter is very short. I'll try to get another one up by this weekend to make up for the long delay on the last one.

Please review!


	8. Old Friends

**Hey, are you seeing this?** I said I'd have a chapter up by the weekend and look, here it is! And it's fairly long to make up for the fact that the last one was so short. I mean it's not superlong or anything, but considering I wrote it in like, three days, I think it's fairly long.

Oh, and althought no one asked about this, I figured I'd put it in for anyone who exclusively watches, or reads, the English-dubbed/translated versions of Inu Yasha. Anyway, **"Kagome-neechan"** means something like sister Kagome. Not in the religious sense, but more in the 'hey sis' kinda way.

Otherwise. . . I found it interesting to read who you guys thought the four figures were, well five really including the one who appeared in the last chapter. A few people guessed all four right after chapter 7. Though there were some odd guesses out there. Don't worry, that particular mystery shall be solved in this chapter.

**Thanks for reviewing:** i laugh at you, Rkhiara (please don't die, I need you to review! lol), dragondolphin1990, ALL, Moonlight Misstress, BRAC3 FAC3, Chibigreen (he might. . .), Kitroku, fluorescentpinkfairies, IYWriterGirl, Kite, Taiyoukai Lady/Diana Artemis Silvermoon, AnimeMoonlightGoddess, Helen (I want a Sesshy plushie too!), khstennis01, Orlandoroxmysox (you weren't actually expecting me to NOT have a cliffhanger were you?), Fuji the Hobbit (getting up early, what's that? I am unfamiliar with this concept. Except when I have to go to work. . .), iygurl, kurishii, cockroachelle (huh? Rin?), shangxiang10, PurityFlower1989, The Violent Tomboy, JennyTheWhiteWolf (thanks, I like to think I can be creative; I'm glad you're liking the story!), Inuyasha's hun, Angel452, Raiyevern (thank you, I try), Shadows stalk during the deep of night (yeah, you're right), watergoddesskasey, Shavaineth (don't worry, I don't think anyone got it right the first time 'round), ForestSprite, Moonjava, Shadowed Rains, Lord Fluffy, chinadoll27, animewolfgurl and Lady-Bloodrose (there's a chapter-length requirement for "the greats"? I'm flattered that you think my story's that good, btw.).

Disclaimer: I only own the plot in this story. And the dragon in this chapter. But only in this chapter. I don't own any of the other ones.

* * *

A Clash of Cultures

Chapter 8 - Old Friends

_"Who are you callin' a mangy wolf!" someone called from behind them._

_Kagome's head snapped around at the familiar voice. She gasped._

_There were four figures standing on the other side of the wall of sorcerers. Two of them waved at her._

_"Hey Kagome-neechan!"_

"Are you alright, Kagome-neechan?"

Kagome's expression quickly changed to one of joy as she waved back to her friends. It felt so good to hear someone speak Japanese again.

"Ginta, Hakkaku!" she called to them. "I'm fine!"

"You are not!" stated Kouga loudly with his arms crossed. "You're bleeding!"

"Oh, it's nothing really. . ."

The sorcerers around her gasped when Kouga, with one mighty leap, jumped over everyone and landed directly in front of Kagome. He looked down at her with a stern expression on his face.

"That," he pointed at the wounds on her leg, "is not nothing. I could smell your blood from the palace."

Then he reached down and pulled her to her feet. He took both her hands into his and Kagome really looked at him for the first time. He was still Kouga, but he was different, older, possibly wiser. He was a bit taller and the wild look that bordered on cruelty was gone from his eyes. His eyes were the eyes of someone who had seen a lot. There was still a mischievous spark in them though.

"You know, this was a lot more fun when that mutt was around," he said with a grin. Kagome rolled her eyes. Then she realized something.

"Your shards!" she exclaimed, looking down at his legs and momentarily thinking just how odd it was to see him wearing jeans. "They're gone!"

Kouga chuckled.

"That was 500 years ago Kagome-neechan." Her head snapped up to him. Unlike Ginta and Hakkaku, Kouga never called her 'sister'.

A second figure landed a little bit behind him and growled. Kouga looked at them and smiled. It took Kagome a few moments to figure out who the person was. The change was that dramatic.

Gone were the pigtails and slightly dimpled cheeks and eyes that constantly burned with fire. In their place was a proud, regal-looking woman with long, straight hair that went down past her waist. She was wearing a hunter green summer dress. There was still passion sparkling in her eyes, but it was calmer, more controlled. The only thing that had remained the same was the purple flower in her hair.

"Hello Ayame," Kagome said. She looked at Kouga, then back to Ayame and smirked. "I see you finally managed to beat some sense into him."

Ayame smiled.

"Actually," she said, pointing at Ginta and Hakkaku, "those two helped."

Kagome laughed. Kouga rolled his eyes and Ayame smiled.

"Now then, back to business," Kouga stated, suddenly completely serious again. He pointed at the wounds on her leg and said in perfect English: "Who did that to you?"

Kagome hesitated in answering.

'I know it's been five hundred years since I last saw him and he's grown up a lot,' she mused, 'but he's still Kouga and if I tell him who it was, he might just kill him. And I don't want anyone to die because of me. . . even if they do deserve something horrible to happen to them. . .'

Kouga growled impatiently.

"Kagome . . ." he warned, "if you don't tell me who it was, then I'll just have to kill all of them."

Someone began to laugh and then one by one all the masked sorcerers joined him. Kouga's eyes narrowed and he slowly turned his head to where Lucius and the Dark Lord stood. Kagome guessed it was Lucius who had started laughing first.

"Silence!" the Dark Lord bellowed and the laughter stopped. There was amusement in his eyes as he spoke.

"Kill us all? My, that's quite the ambitious goal; you would've made a good Slytherin if you didn't posses the stupidity of a Gryffindor. Do you have any idea whom you are dealing with?"

"I know all I need to know. I know that you are ugly and smell of the grave and that if you aren't careful I'll send you back to it!" Kouga had by now turned so that he was facing the Dark Lord.

"Such strong words coming from someone so young. I don't even feel any magic coming from you. And yet you don't seem to be a muggle either. . ."

"My Lord, if I may," Lucius began, "I don't believe he looks entirely human. Just look at those ears, and the way he simply jumped over our death eater circle. . ."

"Yes, Lucius, you're right. He's probably not human at all. However, he also seems to have forgotten that there are two of them and thirty of us in the circle, not to mention the servants I have positioned around the perimeter of the park."

"What do you mean there's two of them!" came a cry from the back.

"Hey, that's right!" came a second. Everyone turned around in time to see Ginta and Hakkaku stomp up to the death eater circle.

"Out of my way!"

"Move!"

Death eaters went flying as the two wolves literally picked them up and threw them out of their way. Then they took their places on either side of Kouga and Ayame and put their hands on their hips in anger.

"As you can plainly see there are four of us," said Ginta who was on the left, beside Kouga.

"Plus Kagome-neechan, who is also very powerful," added Hakkaku from the right, next to Ayame.

Kagome nearly laughed at the two of them. While they were taller and burlier than they had been in the feudal era, they still had the same hair styles, which combined with the identical jeans and leather jackets they were wearing, made them look like street thugs. And yet Kagome knew that, really, they were absolute sweethearts.

"Hey, Kagome," Ron whispered, "why do they have tails?"

"Umm. . . well, you see, they're . . .uhh. . ."

"We have tails," Kouga answered for her, looking over his shoulder at Ron with a predatory look on his face, "because we're wolves."

"What!" several voices exclaimed at once.

"But. . . but, Remus doesn't have a tail and he's a wolf!" Harry exclaimed. Kouga scowled at the boy.

"Don't mistake us with common werewolves, boy. We are wolf demons and there's a big difference."

"Wolf demons?" laughed Lucius and Kouga turned his attention back to him. Kagome could tell just by his stance that he was sending the sorcerer a challenge.

"Yes," he answered calmly, "I am Kouga, Lord of the Mountain Lands."

She hoped Lucius had enough sense to back down. It was Ayame however, who interrupted the staring match.

"Kouga, darling," she purred, "leave the poor humans alone. We are far away from our territory and this place reeks of them. I want to go."

Her mate looked into her eyes and Kagome smiled at the softness she saw in them.

'They make such a wonderful pair,' she thought dreamily.

"Yes, run away," Lucius taunted, "it's the only way to avoid dieing a slow and painful death you pathetic half-breeds!"

Kagome winced.

'Idiot! Actual half-demons usually get upset when you call them that, let alone full demons!' Kagome thought.

Now Kouga was growling very loudly.

"Get the children out of here," he commanded and Ginta and Hakkaku nodded in response.

Ginta, being closer to Kagome, scooped her up and ran, leaping over the now restored circle of sorcerers. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Hakkaku grab Harry and Ron and do the same.

They didn't get far. Suddenly, she felt Ginta stagger as something hit him in the back. It was a curse, a dark curse. It felt similar to the ones that had hit Kirara, only not nearly as strong. Ginta made it over to a nearby tree, before collapsing.

"Ginta!" Kagome cried. "Are you alright?"

The wolf didn't answer, but instead slowly got up and shook himself off. He was joined by Hakkaku, who looked absolutely livid.

Then Ginta slowly raised his eyes and Kagome's breath caught. He looked dangerous, like the predator he was. She'd seen that look on Kouga before, even on Ayame, but never on Kouga's two loveable companions.

Just then Hakkaku sniffed the air and looked up into the tree. Kagome stiffened as she felt youki coming from it.

"Well, it's about time you got here!" he snarled in Japanese into the tree's branches. Kagome, Harry and Ron all looked up, trying to figure out who he was talking to.

"Oh give me a break," a strange voice answered, "do you have any idea how bad traffic is in this city?"

"You're a demon, you could've just flown here," Ginta accused.

"And risk someone stealing my convertible?"

Kagome yelped as something fell out of the tree and landed next to her.

"Well, since you're here. . ."

"Yeah, yeah," the stranger waved them off, "I'll protect them and make sure nothing happens to them."

The wolves nodded to him and ran back to rejoin Kouga. Kagome noticed that Ginta had a slight limp when he ran.

"Hey Kagome, it's been a while!" the stranger turned to her with excited eyes.

He looked younger than Kouga and the rest of the wolves, but he was definitely a demon. His hair was slightly more orange than Ron's was and it formed a shaggy mop on top of his head. He wasn't very tall, in fact Kagome guessed he was a little shorter than Kouga.

"Oh wait," he said, as if suddenly remembering something, "this will probably help."

She heard Harry and Ron gasp as his body began to morph. A bushy orange-red tail appeared, his hands and feet became paws and his face became longer, until it had a small snout. He noticed the boy's startled glances and grinned widely at them, showing off his impressive set of sharp, pointy teeth.

Kagome, however, gasped and put a hand to her mouth in surprise. It was undeniable now: he was definitely looked more than just familiar.

"Shippo?" she asked quietly. The joy that appeared on his face told her she was right.

"Kagome!" he cried and pulled her into a fierce hug. She hugged him back.

'This is my little Shippo?' she thought in amazement. The change was incredible.

"Well Kagome, I must say, you have the most interesting friends," a familiar voice drawled.

Kagome's eyes shot open.

She carefully unravelled herself from Shippo and then slowly turned around.

Leaning against another tree was a smirking blond sorcerer wearing black robes and with a two-tailed cat perched on his shoulder.

"Draco!" she cried and dashed to him, throwing her arms around him. She was so happy to see that he wasn't dead.

The boy stiffened in the embrace, sort of like Inu Yasha usually did. As if he wasn't used to people hugging him. . . or maybe just not used to strange girls hugging him. Eventually he relaxed and patted her on the back.

"Umm. . . this might be the stupid question," Ron's voice interrupted, "but. . . weren't you dead Malfoy?"

"'Were' being the operative word, Weasel," Draco stated as Kagome broke away from him. She looked from one boy to the other, making sure no one was going to cause any trouble. Ron, however, seemed genuinely curious. And now that she thought about it, so was she.

"Do you actually expect us to believe that someone just happened to get past all the death eaters surrounding this place and then walked up to you, took out their wand and preformed a powerful resurrection spell without anyone noticing?" Harry asked sceptically.

"No, not a wand," Draco drawled and pretended to be examining his nails, "a sword."

Kagome's eyes grew wide. She looked at Draco in surprise.

"Sesshoumaru's here?" she asked. Draco grinned and nodded.

"Umm. . . who's Sesshoumaru?" asked Harry, confused.

"Someone that makes Kouga over there look like a sweet little puppy," Shippo said in English, with a surprisingly American accent.

"So he's a demon?" Ron asked.

"Not only that, he's a demon lord."

"Yes, and after all I've read about him, I definitely don't want to miss his meeting with the Dark Lord," Draco added, not bothering to hide the excitement he was feeling, "so can we please get a bit closer to the action."

"Woah, hang on there," Shippo put a hand up to stop him, "I'm supposed to be keeping you safe and I don't think that includes running off to where the danger is."

"What's the danger?" Draco asked. "We've got two powerful demons with us and to top it off Kagome's a miko and I'm quite handy at curses."

"Hey and what are we, hippogriff feed?" Ron cried.

"Naturally."

Ron glared at the blond, but he didn't see him because he had already turned and started walking in the direction Ginta and Hakkaku had taken off in.

"He's right, you know," Kagome told Shippo, "I've been up against worse things than a couple of sorcerers. Besides, Kouga and Sesshoumaru have a knack for overkill. I don't want to see _everyone_ there die."

Shippo sighed and shook his head.

"All right, all right. Kouga's going to kill me if anything happens to you, but all right, let's go."

And with that they all followed Draco back towards the battlefield.

They easily caught up to the blonde, who didn't seem to be in any hurry to get anywhere anyway with the way he was so easily strolling through the park.

* * *

Kagome was looking straight ahead, willing her eyes to spot the group so that she could find out what was going on. She yelped in surprise when a strong arm grabbed her around the middle without warning. Before she knew it, she was staring at Shippo's back.

Shippo standing in front of her protectively and snarling. Kagome peeked out from behind him.

Standing there were more sorcerers, the one in front being quite possibly the oddest looking man she'd ever seen in her life. His face was covered in scars, he had a wooden leg and a fake eye that looked like it could be made of wood and was definitely magical. Kagome found the eye quite creepy, the way it didn't keep still and was constantly spinning around in circles.

With him was a set of red-headed twins as well as two other red-heads, all of whom looked like they could be related to Ron. There was also a tall, stern-looking woman who reminded Kagome of every single picture of a western-style witch she had ever seen, right down to the pointy hat on her head.

They all had their wands trained on Shippo.

"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, we are glad to have found you so quickly," she said in a relieved and heavily accented voice.

"Yeah, mum's going to rip your heads off when you get back to Headquarters. . ." one of the twins said.

"She went ballistic when you didn't arrive with the others. . ." the second one added.

"What I'd like to know is what in Merlin's name you two thought you were doing!" the one with the creepy eye growled. "No, actually, first I'd like to know, who in Merlin's name those two are. . ."

"And why Malfoy's with them," one of the other two red-heads said. Unlike the other three, his hair was long and Kagome saw a fang of some sort dangling from one ear.

By now, Shippo, having figured out that these people were friends of two of the boys he was supposed to be protecting, had stopped snarling, but remained in a defensive stance, eyeing them suspiciously.

"Oh, this is Cho's cousin Kagome," Harry began quickly in an attempt to diffuse the tension, "and this is her friend. . uhh. . ."

"Shippo," Kagome stepped in front of her friend, "this is Shippo. We are old friends."

"Yeah," Shippo smirked, "we go waaay back."

Kagome glared at him.

"Okay. . ." red-head with the fang said, "so here's the next question then. What _is _he?"

Now Shippo's posture relaxed and he crossed his arms.

"I'm a fox," he stated proudly.

Everyone stared at him in astonishment.

"Great," mumbled Ron, "we've got wolves and a fox. . . now all we need is a dog."

Shippo gave him a sly grin.

"Be careful what you wish for kid," he said. Kagome put a hand over her mouth to hide her smile.

"What do you mean wolves?" the woman of the group demanded.

"Oh, the Dark Lord and my father thought it would be a good idea to hurt Kagome here and thus greatly annoy the Lord of the Japanese Wolf Youkai," Draco stated matter-of-factly.

"Yes, and then he got the even better idea of calling Kouga a half-breed," Kagome added.

"He what!" Shippo's head snapped to look at her. Then he shook his head. "What a moron."

Draco snorted.

"Sounds like my father," he said, "insult first, find out who you've insulted later."

"Speaking of which, you Mr. Malfoy are under arrest," growled the odd-looking man.

"For what?" Draco demanded.

"For being a death eater."

"Except that I'm not."

"We know you were initiated young man, you can't possibly deny that."

"And you're planning to prove this how?"

"With the Dark Mark on your forearm you insolent brat!" The man was clearly getting agitated now and Kagome could tell that Draco was revelling in it.

Draco rolled up both his sleeves and then extended both his arms for everyone to see.

"What Dark Mark?" he asked innocently. The other sorcerers gasped.

"That's impossible!" "How!" "But, but. . "

Draco smirked and Kagome rolled her eyes. Harry and Ron both gave him annoyed looks.

"He was initiated," Harry finally said, "Kagome removed the Mark earlier today."

As one, the group of sorcerers turned to stare at Harry. Then they looked at Kagome, who had the sudden urge to go back to where she was before, behind Shippo. Then she felt something to her left. She looked in its direction.

"Everyone get down!" she yelled and threw herself to the ground. She saw Draco immediately follow her example and thus just barely avoiding the green flash of light, that Kagome now knew was a curse, that streaked past him.

It took a few moments for the other sorcerers to pick up on what was going on and by then Shippo had positioned himself between the group of humans and their attackers.

"Stop hiding like cowards and come out and face me!" he cried.

'Yup, he definitely grew up around Inu Yasha,' Kagome thought as she got up.

Another curse flew through the air, this time aimed at Shippo. The fox demon easily dodged it.

"You call that magic?" he taunted and then reached into his jacket pocket. "This is magic."

With those words, he threw something small in the direction of where the curse came from. The object began growing mid-air and the next thing everyone knew, two masked sorcerers were running for their lives away from a huge, red dragon that was breathing fire at their heels.

"Look out behind you!" Draco yelled.

Shippo whirled around with his arm extended.

"Foxfire!" he cried and flames erupted from the ground, forming a line that led towards the tree that the third sorcerer was hiding behind.

Within seconds, all that was left of the tree was a pile of ashes and a slightly singed black-robed figure with half a stick in his hand that he had pointed at Shippo.

Shippo growled and the man dropped the stick and ran.

"Bloody. Hell." stated Ron.

"That. . ." began one of the twins.

". . . was bloody amazing," finished the other.

"You know, that dragon isn't acting like any I've ever seen before," the fourth red-head, who hadn't spoken yet, said with a frown.

Shippo rolled his eyes.

"Of course it's not acting like a real dragon. I'm a fox remember? Foxes are tricksters. The dragon's an illusion. . . though a pretty impressive one if I do say so myself"

That caught the twin's attention. They looked at each other and grinned.

Just then Shippo sniffed the air. His eyes went wide.

"Shit," he cursed, "this can't be good!"

"What's wrong?" Kagome asked.

"I smell blood. . . and it's not all human."

* * *

Well, hope you enjoyed that. The next chapter might take a while to write, 'cause I really have to get back to my other fic and update it first. Please review!

Author's Notes:

**Kouga -** yes, I have given him two different titles in this fic: the Lord of the Mountain Lands and the Lord of the Wolf Youkai. In the series, Kouga is the leader of the uh, Western wolves (I'm not sure about this one) and Ayame is from one of the other packs. A third pack gets slaughtered by Kagura when they attack Naraku's fortress. But anyway, I'm assuming that just like Sesshoumaru is Lord of the Western Lands, because Kouga and the wolves live in the mountains, Kouga, as leader of the wolves is essentially Lord of the Mountain Lands. Also, remember that when Ayame came to Kouga to ask him to marry her it was to make him leader of her pack as well as his. I'm thinking that since they are married/mated now he has become a powerful leader and unified all the wolf packs. So, he's now the Lord of the Wolf Youkai too.

**Shippo -** I just know someone is going to point this out: Shippo seems a bit out of character when he first appears. Don't forget that the Shippo we all know and love from the series is just a child. He's grown up since then. And he knew that the wolves were going to be there and that Kagome would therefore be safe. And there is a sort of additional background story as to how he knew that (apart from the fact that they all seem to be there together), but I won't be returning to that 'till later.

And is it just me or is Ron getting some of the best lines. . . of the wizards I mean?


	9. Of Foxes and Wolves

I was truly amazed that within 24 hours of The Half Blood Prince being out I already had people commenting on the ending. For the record I would just like to say that I have not read the book yet and in fact, won't be getting my hands on a copy for at least another week or two or basically whenever my friend is finished with hers. I won't pay for the hardcover version of my favourite author's books (that being Anne Rice's _Vampire Chronicles_), therefore I definitely won't pay for the hardcover of any of the Harry Potter books.

So please be nice and don't mention how much you were pissed off / dissapointed / whatever about the ending of the book. I've already had enough of a spoiler thanks to some moron who decided to announce the ending in the middle of Dairy Queen yesterday. I'm still hoping that I misheard at least part of what he said.

Having said that, this fic may actually be finished by the time I get to reading the new book, so HBP will not have any influence on this fic.

**Shavaineth asked** how come Moody and crew didn't react when they were told which demons had shown up. The simple answer: they didn't know what Draco, Kagome and Shippo were talking about. Notice that Draco called Kouga the Lord of the Wolf _Youkai_. As you all know, youkai is Japanese for demon. I'm guessing though that none of the wizards speak Japanese and so for all they know youkai could just be some fancy term for werewolf. As far as not recognizing the name Kouga. . . well really, neither did Lucius. In Draco's flashback to his childhood Lucius and Narcissa did recognize Sesshoumaru's name. But Lucius was probably in Japan for partially political reasons, hence, like any good businessman, he likely did his homework and studied the who's who of Japan. Therefore he did know who the Lord of the Western Lands was, even if it's not entirely certain if he knew said lord was a demon. Moody and the others never had to do that particular research, so they have no idea who Kouga or Sesshoumaru are.

Hope that clears that up. Otherwise, I'm confused as to what you meant by the question.

**Thanks for reviewing:** Shigatsu87 (actually I didn't realize that Kouga's comment came out quite that way, but don't worry, I will be sort of getting back to Inu Yasha later), kitsunekilala, MikoKyikou, GoldenRat (you're actually the first person who asked what a bunch of Japanese demons are doing in England. . .there is a logical explanation and I will be answering it eventually), Shavaineth (one demon vs death eater battle coming right up), Sweet-single, Ha-chan, orlandoroxmysox, Shadows stalk during the deep of night (nope haven't mentioned Inu Yasha yet), Inuyasha's hun, Miroku's Priestess (yeah, you're right it was Kouga's tribe that was slaughtered. . . hence why he only has Ginta and Hakkaku-duh!- but wasn't there another tribe involved in there as well? Hmm, I'll have to go back and watch the episode), shangxiang10, watergoddesskasey, Inverness, froggiesrcool (I'm glad you like my Draco), chinadoll27, The Violent Tomboy (Hermione's not with them., she's at Gimmauld Place), dragondolphin1990, AnimeMoonlightGoddess, Heaven wouldn't take me and Hell was afraid I would take over (love your user name, lol!), DraconWolf88 (wow, I am so beyond flattered right now, thanks), Raiyevern, Bus Buddie, ranchan23, Sesshyluver1, Shadow-wolf888, ladylillyofazra, Fuji the Hobbit, Moonjava, animewolfgurl, IYGURL, Hieiforever, i laugh at you, xHikari-808x, Shadowed Rains, Angel452, Kyokorain, ohiowriter, katspegussaus, lady-of-tormentdeath and Taiyoukai Lady.

Disclaimer: I own the dragon and the plot. That is all.

Warning: There's a possible spoiler for the third Inu Yasha movie in this chapter. It's only one line though and it may not even make much sense unless you've seen the movie, but I thought I'd warn you anyway.

* * *

A Clash of Cultures

Chapter 9 - Of Wolves and Foxes

"I smell blood. . . and it's not all human."

Kagome's eyes went wide.

"Kouga?" she asked. Shippo nodded.

"Then let's go!"

"Wait!" Draco said. Then he turned to the sorcerers. "Professor McGonagall, I was wondering. . . could I bring my pet cat with me to Hogwarts in the fall?"

There was a moment of silence, during which the wizards racked their brains, trying to figure out how that was a trick question.

"Mr. Malfoy," began the tall, skinny woman wearing a pointy hat, "the school rules clearly state that students may bring to Hogwarts a rat, a toad or a cat as a pet. Although, the reason as to why you are asking me now when we are surrounded by death eaters escapes me."

"I just wanted to make sure I could bring Kirara with me to Hogwarts next year, professor. She's a very rare and unusual breed of Japanese cat, you see."

"Who cares about your stupid cat, Malfoy, there are people dieing on the other side of the park!" Harry yelled angrily.

Draco spared the dark-haired boy a single glance before turning once again to the woman, who, apparently, was a professor of his from school.

'Gee, I wish I had a teacher who knew about magic,' Kagome thought to herself, 'it sure would make travelling to the Feudal Era and missing so much school a lot easier.'

"So, you're not going to change your mind professor?" Draco asked again.

"Of course she isn't going to change her mind, Malfoy!" the weird-eyed man growled.

"You're sure?"

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy, I am absolutely certain!" the professor glared at him.

"Oh good."

Draco grinned and looked at Kirara, who was still resting on his shoulder.

"Hear that Kirara," he said, "you're going to Hogwarts with me!"

Kirara meowed.

"Wonderful. Now can we go?" Shippo asked.

"After you."

"Great! Jump on Kagome!"

Kagome climbed on to Shippo's back, just like she was used to doing with Inu Yasha. However, unlike with Inu Yasha, the minute she was settled and ready to go, Shippo started growing, his body getting longer and sprouting red fur all over. Kagome yelped in surprise and nearly lost her balance.

"Wooops, sorry 'bout that," the large fox whose back she was sitting on moments later, chuckled, "should've warned you. I keep forgetting that the last time you saw me I was just a kid."

Then he turned his head to the gaping sorcerers.

"What are you lookin' at? I told you I was a fox, didn't I?"

Draco chuckled.

"Come on Kirara," he said.

Kirara jumped off his shoulder. She took a few steps before erupting into a huge ball of flames.

"What the hell?" exclaimed the odd-looking sorcerer, pointing his stick at the cat.

"What did you do to her!" one of the red-heads added.

Just then the flames cleared and the group got their first look at the transformed Kirara. They were speechless for several moments, their eyes on the cat's now-enormous fangs.

"Hey, that's what you and Kagome were riding on when she was destroying the dementors!" cried Ron.

"When she was what!" someone exclaimed, but by then Kagome wasn't really paying attention, so she didn't know who it was.

The moment Draco jumped onto Kirara's back, both she and Shippo took off, following their noses to the battlefield.

As they got closer, Kagome's senses were assaulted by bursts of magic; the after effects of some very powerful curses and counter curses. She closed her eyes and concentrated on deflecting the onslaught, shutting them from her mind. Eventually she succeeded so that she could still see and feel the magical energy around her, but it was no longer able to penetrate her mind.

Finally the battle came into view. Kagome gasped at the jyaki she saw surrounding it. It was concentrated in one spot.

'The Dark Lord,' she thought, 'he must be using his full power. But I thought he was human. No human should be able to emanate this kind of yjaki, no matter how powerful they are. There's something else there.'

Ginta was the first person they came upon. He was clumsily dodging curses being thrown by one of the masked sorcerers. Suddenly one of them hit him and he howled in pain. Kagome recognized the same curse that the Dark Lord had used on her and shuddered.

Shippo growled and sped up. He opened his mouth and Kagome saw youki forming there. Then, with a slight flick of his head, a ball of blue flames shot out straight for the sorcerer.

This time the human screamed as the foxfire flames devoured him until all that was left was a pile of bones.

"Ginta!" Kagome cried, slipping off of Shippo's back the moment he stopped. She ran to the wolf, who was down on all fours, panting. Out of the corner of her eye, she vaguely registered Shippo changing back to his more human-looking form.

Ginta looked exhausted. He was covered in scratches and bruises and his leather jacket was singed on one side.

"What happened?"

"They were more powerful than we thought they would be," he panted, "the Dark Lord. . .he- his magic isn't quite right."

"I know, I saw the yjaki."

"Yjaki?" Shippo piped in. "But don't powerful witches and sorcerers usually have a yjaki?"

"Yes, but. . . I don't know how to explain it. . . his just. . . feels different. Almost like it's trying to become youki."

"Ok, now could someone please explain what's going on in English, so that I can understand you as well?" Draco interrupted with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Maybe you should just learn Japanese," Shippo suggested with a smirk.

"Somehow, I don't think that's going to happen within the next two minutes."

"Pity. Oh well, basically, Ginta says that Kouga underestimated the Dark Lord and now they're in trouble." Shippo paused. "Does this Dark Lord actually have a name?"

"Yes." Draco replied hesitantly. "But most people just call him You-Know-Who, because they're afraid to say his name."

Suddenly the conversation her cousin was having with Harry, Ron and the other girl made so much more sense to Kagome.

Shippo rolled his eyes.

"You know it's things like that that make me think that maybe Sesshoumaru's right and humans really are just simply absolutely pathetic creatures."

Kagome coughed and glared at him.

"Present company excluded, of course."

"Oh good, I'm glad to hear it," Kagome said darkly, then she looked back to Ginta, "you're going to be alright, but you need to take a rest from the battle."

"I can't, Kouga needs me," Ginta said and began to get up.

"Don't worry about Kouga," said Shippo, "I'm going to help him."

The wolf looked up at his fellow demon and nodded gratefully before collapsing back onto the ground.

"You two stay here," Shippo told Kagome and Draco. When they both nodded, he turned away. "Come on Kirara!"

Kirara roared and the two old friends burst into the battle.

"Just be careful and don't kill them, they are still human!" Kagome shouted after them in Japanese.

But Shippo was already throwing foxfire at the nearest sorcerer, while Kirara jumped into the middle of a magical firefight, knocking down all the masked figures like they were made of paper.

Kagome scanned the park. She saw Kouga and Ayame dodging curses at one end. Every once in a while, one of them would catch a sorcerer between spells or from behind and send them hurling into a tree or another sorcerer. Close by, Kagome recognized the English wolf along with the green-haired sorceress repelling curses using some sort of magical shield. On the opposite end, Hakkaku was trying to tire his opponents out by running around a lot. Unfortunately, he only seemed to be tiring himself out.

Shippo and Kirara's sudden arrival took everyone by surprise, including the sorcerers Kagome had simply labelled the "good guys" for simplicity's sake. Not knowing who Shippo was, a few of them tried to curse him, before Kouga noticed and yelled at them to stop being stupid and fire at the enemy instead.

Kirara was recognized instantly and thus didn't have the problem of being mistaken for the enemy.

As Kagome watched Kirara dodge another green curse, loud screams erupted from where Shippo had been only seconds ago. She turned her head only to see about a dozen masked sorcerers running away from a large blue dragon.

"He sure has a thing for dragons," Draco commented.

"Apparently." Kagome agreed.

Just then the dragon exploded in a dazzling array of light.

"You fools!" someone shouted. "It's not real; it can't hurt you!"

"Well, I suppose it's good to know father's still alive," Draco said in a tone that was trying very hard to be light.

But Kagome heard the tightness in it as well. She turned to him in alarm. Draco just shook his head.

"I'm fine," he said, "there's nothing I can do for him. Besides, he's smart and powerful, he'll get out of this somehow. He always does."

Just then Ginta growled. Draco and Kagome turned around.

"Hello!" one of the red-headed twins they'd met earlier said with a slightly goofy grin on his face. Kagome got the impression that neither one of them had ever looked serious in their entire lives.

"We've come to take you somewhere safe. . ." the second twin said.

". . . away from the battle," the first one finished.

"Thanks, but no," said Draco with a determined expression on his face, "I'm staying right here."

"Me too," Kagome added. There was no way she was leaving her friends in the middle of a battle.

The twins looked at each other, confused.

"But you can't fight. . ." the one on the left said.

". . .you don't have a wand. . ."

". . .you're useless here. . "

". . . and are only going to get killed if you stay here . . ."

"I am not useless!" Kagome yelled at the twins. She'd put up with enough from Inu Yasha about how useless she was in battle and only needed to be protected.

'And who was it that ended up helping defeat the Tenka Hadou no Tsurugi?' she seethed inwardly. 'It certainly wasn't the brothers "couldn't-get-along-if-the-fate-of-the-word-depended-on-it"! And at least Inu Yasha's half-demon, these two are human! They're just as weak as I am!'

One of them took her by the hand.

"We're going to take you to where your cousin is, you'll. . . "

The red-head never got the chance to finish. Suddenly he wasn't holding Kagome's hand anymore, but was laying flat on his back with a very angry man growling on top of him.

"If Kagome doesn't want to go with you, then she's not going anywhere, human!" Ginta snarled viciously and his captive went white with fear, though his eyes were still wide with shock, as if he hadn't quite processed what was going on yet.

"George!" the red-head that was still standing cried, his wand pointed at his brother's attacker. "Get off my brother you. . you. . . oh Merlin, you're one of the wolves, aren't you!"

The grin that Ginta rewarded the twin with could only be described as wolfish. It also managed to show off all his nice, pointy teeth, so that there could be no doubt in anyone's mind that they could very easily bite through soft, human flesh.

Suddenly a number of popping noises surrounded the group, giving Kagome the brief sensation of being stuck inside a popcorn maker. Ginta leaped off the red-head, or George as his twin had called him, and stood, ready to meet the new threat.

"Oh, look what we found," an unpleasant voice sneered from behind a white mask, "a little Japanese girl, two Weasleys an animal and . . ." He paused. "But, they said that. . .how is this possible?"

"Oh hello Mr. Parkinson," Draco drawled casually, "See, I thought I'd just try death on for size to see if I liked it, you know? In the end though, I found life much more advantageous."

"Huh?" the twins asked as one.

"Yes, well, I'm sure Lucius will be more than pleased to see you. . . he has a few questions he'd like to have answered. As does the Dark Lord." Then he pointed his magic stick at Kagome. "And you are also awaited with great pleasure."

Ginta growled and the twins tightened their grips on their sticks. Draco also looked ready to fight. Kagome looked around. They were surrounded.

Out in the battlefield, she saw Hakkaku get hit by a spell and fall down. He didn't get back up.

She also noticed the man with the odd eye firing spells at someone with long, blond hair. She guessed that was Lucius, Draco's father. Further on she saw the professor and the other two red-heads. One of the red-heads looked as though he was avoiding leaning on his left leg as he swivelled around, casting spells at anything with a mask.

Then she noticed the green-haired sorceress fall down under the same yellowish-looking curse Kagome had been put under by the Dark Lord. Then it stopped as Ayame leaped in from nowhere and knocked the one responsible for the curse to the ground.

'Where's Shippo?' she asked herself as she scanned the battlefield looking for her friend, praying he was all right.

Suddenly a sensation so familiar hit her that the entire world seemed to stop for a moment. She couldn't believe it. It wasn't possible.

But it was, she felt it.

"How. . .?" she asked herself, not realizing she had spoken out loud.

"What is it Kagome?" Draco asked, his eyes not moving from the figures surrounding them.

"Is everything all right?" one of the twins asked.

"What do you sense?" asked Ginta.

Kagome heard someone chuckle in the background, but she wasn't really paying attention.

"It doesn't matter what she thinks she sees, because you'll never get to know. I don't need you three. Kill them."

"Kagome?" Ginta asked again, sounding worried.

Kagome was still looking around. She could sense it, but she couldn't see it.

"The shikkon no tama," she whispered, "I can feel a piece of the shikkon no tama nearby."

Then she looked up. And gasped.

* * *

Hehehe. I think I enjoy being evil waaay too much. Though you might be pleased to hear that this chapter was supposed to end differently, but then I got a sudden bout of inspiration while talking to a friend of mine. As a result the story's been prolonged by at least a couple of chapters. I'm a bit concerned that the battle sequences in this chapter weren't very good, but then again Kagome and Draco were both staying clear of the battle.

Author's Note:

**Tenka Hadou no Tsurugi** - I've mentioned this before, it's the Sword of World Conquest (I seen different ways of translating the title of the third movie and I have no idea which is right, but this is the version I know it as, so it's the one I'm using).


	10. The Real Dragon

**Hey, are you all seeing this?** I updated yesterday morning and now I'm updating again! I'm so proud of myself. :D

However, I'm warning you all that in exchange for such a fast update, you're all going to hate me at the end of this chapter. Sorry guys, but I just couldn't resist leaving it where I did. It was too tempting. But there's a hint within this chapter and in my notes at the end of it as to what's going to happen next time.

Btw, no one guessed right on what the heck the Shikon Jewel's doing here and who's got it.

**Thanks for reviewing:** Shadowed Rains, froggiesrcool (no Harry and the gang don't really have much of a part in this; the only reason Draco's still around is because he has no where else to go and no, Kagome has to go back to Japan so that she can help defeat Naraku), ohiowriter (I'm so glad I'm not the only one who hasn't read the book yet, lol), Raiyevern (awww, thanks), Purple Candy, Kenjo, inuyasha1111, Harm Marie, mizuki the kitsune, Sesshieluver89, Moonjava, AnimeMoonlightGoddess, RandomInsanePaperPrincess (meh, I may add a romantic twist at the end of this. . . but it won't involve any of the guys that will appear here), Deiety of sorow, Sweet-single, chinadoll27, Angel452, fan, ranchan23, shangxiang10, Shadow-wolf888, katspegussaus, Shadows stalk during the deep of night, Inuyasha's hun, Lady Sunflower, Shavaineth (I think it's more of a case of the wizarding world not really paying attention to things that don't affect them and as for the demons. . . I've never seen Kouga or any of the other wolves transform in the series or the manga and Kouga's gotten pretty pissed off a few times while fighting Naraku or the Shinintai, so I'm going to keep them in human form), Shigatsu87 (knowing me it could be an evil character who has the Shikon Jewel. . . lol), Rkhiara, The Violent Tomboy, animewolfgurl, astrocosmos, dragondolphin1990, Kage Otome and Kyia Star (ok, which part of "I probably will not have read HBP before I finish this fic, so please don't mention what happens in it in your reviews" did you NOT UNDERSTAND! And incidently, yjaki means "wikked energy" unlike youki which means "demonic energy", therefore I'm figuring that yjaki doesn't necessarily have to be produced by a demon. Anyway, that's the best distinction between the two my research came up with, if you know of a website that has a better explanation than the one I found, please let me know. I'd be glad to check it out and use it as reference.)

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't even own the dragon in this chapter. Just the plot.

* * *

A Clash of Cultures

Chapter 10 - The Real Dragon

"The Shikon no Tama," she whispered, "I can feel a piece of the Shikon no Tama nearby."

Then she looked up. And gasped.

At the same instance the sorcerers pointed their wands at Ginta and the two twins.

"I wonder how much crucio it takes to destroy the mind of a demon?" Mr. Parkinson wondered out loud. "Too bad I don't have the time to find out."

"Expelliarmus!" the twins cried together.

"Protego!" yelled Mr. Parkinson.

"Crucio!" cried several others and the twins fell to their knees screaming.

That brought Kagome's attention back to what was going on. Her head shot back down to look at the twins. Their faces were twisted in agony as pain rampaged through their bodies.

"Leave them alone!" she cried as her grip on her bow tightened.

Suddenly the twins stopped screaming and collapsed on the ground, exhausted and out-of-breath.

"Or you'll what?" taunted Parkinson. "Hit me with your pathetic muggle weapon?"

"You're a fool Parkinson if you think that's a muggle weapon," Draco answered for her.

"I'd watch your tone if I was you Young Mr. Malfoy. We've heard about your mark and how you no longer have one. You're not one of us anymore, remember that. You're just a prisoner of war."

Kagome heard Draco's breath catch.

"Fine!" she yelled at the sorcerer. "Take us to the Dark Lord. I've faced more evil and more powerful things before and I'm not afraid of him!"

"You have?" Draco and the twins asked, surprised by her revelation.

'Damn, I wasn't supposed to tell them that,' she cursed inwardly.

The masked sorcerers chuckled.

"You may not be afraid of him now, but you will be."

He raised his wand and pointed it at Ginta.

"Avada K-"

The rest of the incantation (Kagome was sure it was an incantation by the way his aura moved to envelope the stick in his hand) was lost when suddenly a white ball of youki enveloped him and those closest to him. When the light vanished all that remained of the humans was a small, black crater.

The twins, who'd been closest to the blast, had brought their arms up over their eyes to shield them from the glare and were now slightly singed. But otherwise everyone else was unharmed.

The sorcerers looked around furtively, trying to figure out where the attack had come from. And who had been their attacker. Suddenly one of them cried out in pain, before falling forward, landing in front of the twins, who were still crouching on the ground.

Blood oozed out of a fatal wound in the sorcerer's back.

Suddenly Kagome realized the Shikon Jewel fragment was much closer than before. Very close in fact.

She looked to her left in time to see something fly through the air and pierce through the body of yet another sorcerer. Seconds later it was being pulled back by a chain. In those few brief moments, Kagome recognized the weapon. It was a sickle attached to a chain.

She followed the movements of the chain back to the hand that was expertly wielding it. And she froze.

Her entire being came to a sudden, grinding halt as she watched what appeared to be a 13-year-old boy with his dark hair tied back in a pony tail, pull his arm back and throw the katana at a third sorcerer. There could be no mistake. He was wearing a demon slayer's outfit and had a Shikon Jewel shard in his back.

'Kohaku,' she whispered.

"Why am I not surprised that you know him?" Draco asked sarcastically, snapping Kagome out of her daze.

Then he cast a hex at the nearest sorcerer to him. The hex was deflected harmlessly by his opponent, who then returned the favour.

Meanwhile, the masked sorcerers had also finally noticed Kohaku and were falling back to get out of reach of his weapon, so that they could use their magic from a safe distance.

Or what they thought was a safe distance.

Kohaku skilfully dodged their curses, and not a single one managed to touch him.

Kagome held her breath as she watched him, wishing there was something she could do. She fingered her bow.

'Maybe there is something I can do,' she thought. She was very reluctant to use her last two arrows though.

Suddenly a spell hit one of the masked sorcerers. His body went completely rigid and he fell over. Kagome looked over and saw the limping red-head and the English wolf. They both looked like they were about ready to collapse, yet they managed to cast spells at the enemy.

With the group of masked sorcerers divided between keeping Kohaku at a safe distance, fighting off an enraged Ginta and exchanging magical firepower with the 'good guys', they didn't notice the shadow falling over them right away.

Kagome did, however. She looked at the thing that cast it. She gasped when she realized that this was what she had seen earlier. Two heads and richly decorated battle armour: it was definitely Sesshoumaru's dragon.

A small figure slid off its back and Kagome blinked at the white beard that she was sure had never been there before.

The dragon opened its mouth and a ball of youki careened at the nearest sorcerers. They disintegrated with a scream.

That got everyone's attention.

Just then the small figure stepped in front of the dragon.

"You stupid, pathetic, stinking humans!" Jaken cried, placing his staff in front of him. "How dare you try to hurt Lady Kagome!"

'Wait, did he just say Lady Kagome!' Kagome stared at him in shock.

"Ok, now that dragon is definitely real," commented the red-head with the limp.

Kagome nodded her agreement.

"What is that?" one of the masked sorcerers asked.

"Dunno, but it looks kinda like a house elf," another one replied.

"House elf! House elf!" Jaken exclaimed in outrage. "I'll show you house elf! Feel the power of the Staff of Two Heads!"

The eyes of the male head on the staff snapped wide open. Then he opened his mouth and flames shot out from it.

The sorcerers screamed as the flames ate them alive. Then the head calmed again and its eyes closed. All that was left of the men that had arrived with Mr. Parkinson were bits of charred flesh and bones.

Kagome looked at the sorcerers who were left. Most of them didn't look very well. In fact, Draco's pale skin seemed to have gone a bit green and the English wolf looked as if he was going to be sick.

"Hey Jaken!" Ginta called. "If you're here, does that mean that Sesshoumaru's still around?"

"How should I know?" the small demon asked bitterly. "I mean it's not like he ever tells me where he's going."

Kohaku meanwhile walked up to the dragon and scratched it on top of its heads.

"Kohaku?" Kagome called to him. He turned around and untied one corner of his mouthpiece.

"Hello Kagome," he smiled slightly. But the smile didn't reach his eyes.

That was when Kagome noticed what was different about him. It was in his eyes. Physically he looked exactly the same as he had the last time she had seen him. But his eyes spoke of centuries passed, told the story of a boy who had the wisdom and experience of a dozen old men. But there was no twinkle in them, no spark of life. As if he had died inwardly even though he continued living outwardly.

"How?" she asked.

"The shard," he answered.

"But we needed to complete the Shikon no Tama in order to stop Naraku. . . so how come you're. . ."

"Later," he interrupted her, ending the conversation.

Then he jumped onto the dragon's back and took the reigns. They headed towards the battle.

"Hakkaku!" Kagome suddenly heard Ginta cry, before he speed off. Kagome looked to where she had seen the wolf demon fall earlier in the battle. He still hadn't moved.

'Oh no,' she panicked, 'what if he's dead?'

That thought in mind, she raced after Ginta. She didn't hear Draco and the others shout after her to stop.

Suddenly she felt a surge of magic at her feet as she tripped over something and fell. She looked behind her, to see what she had tripped over, but there was nothing there.

"My, my, what have we here?" an aristocratic-sounding voice drawled. "I do believe we have unfinished business."

Kagome looked up. It was Draco's father. He looked worn out from the battle, and had a scratch over his left eye, but he still managed to stand straight with a look of pure malice on his face as he pointed his magic stick at her.

Slowly, Kagome stood up, never taking her eyes off the blue gray ones that bore into her with promises of pain and death. This man frightened her more than the Dark Lord everyone was so afraid of.

His stick had remained levelled with her head as she had gotten up. Lucius licked his lips in anticipation, as if trying to decide what he wanted to do first.

"Father no!"

Malice disappeared from his eyes and was replaced with shock. He glanced behind Kagome and his eyes widened while his mouth dropped open slightly. He actually paled.

"D-Draco. . .?" he said in a mixture of wonder and confusion. "But. . .you're. . ."

"Dead?" his son supplied in an amused tone. Draco was now standing just behind Kagome. She glanced back to see him standing with his feet slightly apart and gripping his wand tightly at his side.

'He's ready to fight his own father if he has to,' Kagome realized sadly.

She looked back to Lucius. His face was now blank, void of emotion. Behind him she noticed Ginta helping Hakkaku off the battle field. She noted with relief that Hakkaku was alive.

She felt even more relief when the sorcerers who tried to stop them were suddenly enveloped with blue fox fire.

"What happened to your mark?" Lucius demanded of Draco.

"Kagome purified it," Draco answered, "she's a miko. Father please, lower your wand and let her purify yours too."

Kagome's head snapped back to Draco. She was about to say something about never having offering to purify his father's mark, when she noticed the expression on his face.

There was desperation in his eyes as they pleaded with his father.

"Leave the Dark Lord, he can't win and if you stay and fight on his side you'll die!"

"Traitor!" Lucius hissed and Kagome could almost feel the fury in his voice. Sadness mingled with the desperation in Draco's eyes.

"Please father, I don't want you to die," he said softly.

"I won't. You will. For betraying your master and your family."

Draco gulped and all emotion disappeared from his face except for shock and fear.

Kagome turned around. Lucius was now pointing his stick at Draco.

"No!" she cried, running in front of Draco. "He's your son! Doesn't that mean anything to you! Could you really kill your own son?"

'Not even Sesshoumaru is that heartless,' she hoped.

"I would rather my son be dead than a traitor to everything I have ever believed in and fought for."

Kagome wished she could see at least a glimmer of madness in his eyes; then she could at least be reassured that Draco's father was simply insane. But no, Lucius's face held nothing but steely resolve.

"Get out of the way, girl."

"No, I won't let you do this!"

"Kagome, do what he says," Draco whispered.

"No!"

"Very well then," Lucius said evenly, his aim shifting to her, "Avada Kadavra."

"Kagome!" she heard someone cry in the distance as she watched the flash of green light head straight for her.

* * *

Mwahahaha! So do you hate me now? Lol! 

Ok, ok, here's a hint : if you think back to an episode when something sort of similar happened, then you might figure out what's about to happen. Otherwise, you'll just have to wait 'till I update. :p


	11. The Headmaster

No, I haven't died yet, but well, life got in the way and so I couldn't get to updating sooner.

I really hadn't intended the person yelling "Kagome" to be such a mystery, yet a lot of people seemed to focus on it. I was rather thinking that it could've been Shippo, or maybe Harry, who yelled it out. But really, it doesn't matter; it could've been anybody.

Thank you so much for all the wonderful reviews. I honestly can't get over how many people are reading and liking this story! Unfortunately, because there's so many of you, I'm going to have to stop thanking you all before each chapter, 'cause it's getting to be a long and confusing paragraph, which most people probably skip anyway. So as of this chapter, I'm only responding to a few reviewers at a time, who I think have valid questions or who I just really want to answer.

But, I'm really, really grateful to all of you. Thanks a million!

**Lonewolf-chica** - Yay! hugs You guessed it! Actually you were the only one who remembered Tsubaki. Have some fluffy-shaped cookies.

**Shadow-wolf888** - Seriously, I'm not out to break any reviewer number records. I am totally thrilled with how many I have. But hey, if you want to spread the word, go for it (and no, I have no idea how you'd do that other than tell all your friends or possibly add my story to a C2 group).

**lady-of-tormentdeath** - Yeah, if had occurred to me to have the curse not effect her in the same way because she was a miko, but at the end of the day, I think it basically comes down to the fact that she's human. And since she's human, the curse can still kill her. But. . . . well, you'll see in a moment where the "but" comes in.

**Shavaineth** - Aaahhh!. . . did I not correct the 'katana' bit? Damn it! It sounded wrong when I used it, so I looked it up and changed Kohaku's weapon to being called a sickle and chain, but I must've overlooked it there. Thanks for catching it, I shall eventually go back and fix that. And yeah, it does make sense that Kouga and the wolves have an animal form as well. . . I wonder if there's an actual reason why they never transform? I sort of figure they prefer their human forms. Hmm. . .I'll see where the story goes before deciding whether or not to give poor Remus a heart-attack. Lol!

**froggiesrcool** - Oh, so you were talking like Sesshoumaru on purpose? And here I just thought you were insane, lol! As for the death eaters dropping like flies. . . it's what they do in Inu Yasha all the time. I mean, in one episode I distinctly remember Jaken taking out an entire army in, like, less than five minutes. At least no one's started wielding a sword yet! I'm glad I made you laugh, cry and curse me all in one chapter, though (so sue me; I talk like that!). LOL! And now that I have someone going over my fic with a fine tooth comb, I will have to pay more attention to my editing. I like criticism (as long as there's a point to it) and I can be horribly nit-picky myself, so don't worry about it. I'm happy you like my fic this much.

Disclaimer: I only own the story. That's it, nothing else.

* * *

A Clash of Cultures

Chapter 11 - The Headmaster

"Very well then," Lucius said evenly, his aim shifting to her, "Avada Kadavra."

"Kagome!" she heard someone cry in the distance as she watched the flash of green light head straight for her.

It only took a moment, but in that moment Kagome thought she saw every little particle of the curse headed her way. Before her eyes the green light surrounding the curse seemed to divide and its brightness fade, until she could see its core and the searing, white light it contained.

Instinctively she brought up an arm to shield herself.

Then she felt the curse hit, felt the intense heat of the white light as it aimed for her heart. Somewhere in that heat she sensed human emotions tangled up with the magic: hatred, anger and betrayal.

Then suddenly the heat was gone. So was the light. Kagome collapsed onto her knees, gasping for breath.

Her head felt like it was full of water and she heard the murmur voices as if from a great distance. Even the blades of grass in front of her seemed to meld into one big, green puddle. She shook her head in order to clear it, then looked down again.

She noticed that her right hand was still tightly clutching her bow.

Someone touched her left shoulder.

"Kagome?" she recognized Draco's voice. "Are you alright?"

She nodded, not really wanting to say anything at the moment, because her mouth felt like she had just kissed a dragon with bad breath.

"Kagome. . . you-you're alive," someone said in amazement. Kagome looked up. It was Harry.

"Wow," Ron breathed from behind him, "someone must've forgotten to tell her she's supposed to die from that curse."

Beside her, Draco chuckled.

"Yep, that's our Kagome!" Shippo said happily from where he was standing next to Lucius's prone body. Kagome's eyes widened.

"Is he. . .?" she asked, looking at Lucuis in horror.

Shippo looked down and sniffed twice. Then he looked at her and nodded.

'I killed him. . . I killed a human being,' was the first thought that went through her mind. She couldn't believe it; she felt horrified at the very thought, yet everything, the dead body, everything just seemed so surreal.

Just then someone stepped in front of her, blocking the sun. She heard Shippo growling in the background. Kagome looked up.

Looking down at her was the image of every single wizard drawing she'd ever seen. In fact, she distinctly remembered watching a cartoon when she was little where the wizard Merlin looked exactly like the man standing in front of her. He had a long, white beard, dark purple robes covered in gold stars and a pointed hat on his head. There was even a twinkle in his eyes as he watched her with evident curiosity.

"Hello there," he said in a kind, grandfatherly tone, "and who are you?"

"I am Kagome Higurashi," she said, winching at how rough her voice sounded.

"She's Cho Chang's cousin," Harry explained.

"Really? How very interesting. And Mr. Malfoy. . ." The old man paused and seemed to study Draco for a moment.

He reminded Kagome of Lady Kaede; there was the same mixture of wisdom and determination in his eyes. It was a comforting thought. Slowly, she saw astonishment slowly creep into his expression as he stared at Draco.

"But I was told that you were. . ."

He was interrupted by a small "pop" to Kagome's left.

"Aaahhh. . . if it issn't the great Albusss Dumbledore," came the raspy voice of the Dark Lord, "I was expecting you much sssooner."

"Hello Tom," Albus Dumbledore responded, "I apologize for being late, but I was at Hogwarts and the message didn't get to me as fast as it should have. And then I came across this remarkable young lady here."

The Dark Lord chuckled.

"Yess, young Kagome is quite remarkable issn't she? I mussst ssay, she hasss made quite a nuisance of hersself ssso far."

"And he hasn't even heard that you can deflect the killing curse yet," Draco muttered to Kagome under his breath.

"And her friends proved to be an even greater nuisance, but those are only minor setbacks. . ."

"You call the obliteration of half your army a minor setback?" Shippo asked with raised eyebrows.

The Dark Lord turned his attention to Shippo and narrowed his eyes.

"I thought we were missing a wolf," he said.

"Fox. I'm a fox."

'What does he mean, they're missing a wolf?' Kagome thought.

She carefully stood up with Draco's help and scanned the battlefield. She saw Jaken running away from a group of sorcerers who were bombarding him with a series of curses. He was missing his staff. By the edge of the park, she saw Kouga and company laying on the ground with four masked sorcerers standing over them. They seemed to be somehow magically restrained from moving.

Her breath caught in her throat as she watched Kohaku get hit by one of the green killing curses. He fell to the ground. Then she saw the Shikon shard in his back glow for a few seconds. When it stopped, Kohaku got up and charged, sickle and chain in hand, at the sorcerers who had cursed him. He leapt to avoid getting hit again and threw the sickle which he was in mid-air. It neatly sank into the shoulder of the sorcerer nearest to him.

Kagome suddenly felt an arm grab her and pull her away. She was about to start struggling when she realized it was Draco.

"Come on," he urged her, "believe me, we don't want to get caught up in the middle of this duel!"

'Huh?' she thought, but followed him anyway.

Behind her, she could feel a sudden build-up of magic. It felt like two powerful storms about to clash. She broke away from Draco's grasp and stopped to look back.

Both the Dark Lord and the old man had their magic sticks out and aimed at each other.

There was no longer anything kind or grandfatherly about the old man. He wasn't stooping slightly anymore, but standing straight, his aura swirling angrily around him in a dazzling array of lights. She could feel raw magic emanating from him.

The Dark Lord glared at him with an intensity that would've made most people cower. His eyes glowed bright red, making him appear even more demonic than before. He was also standing tall, his feet slightly apart, as his aura formed a sort of dark whirlwind around him.

The air around them felt tense, as if preparing for a truly spectacular thunderstorm.

And then it hit.

With a mighty bellow, the Dark Lord cast the first spell. A beam of light left his stick and headed for the old man. The old man shouted something back and the spell was deflected at a tree, which burst into flames. He then retaliated with his own spell, which was just as easily deflected by the Dark Lord.

Who answered with a dark red curse. It was deflected straight back at him. The lipless mouth smiled maliciously as he raised his stick so that it lined up exactly with the returning ray of light. His lips moved and Kagome knew he was chanting something, but he was too far away for her to hear what it was.

The curse impacted with the tip of his wand. Kagome could see it swirl around his wand before gathering at its tip again. It looked as though he was blowing up a lethal bubble of dark red chewing gum. Except that the centre of the bubble wasn't empty, but full of dark magic.

The Dark Lord hissed the last syllable of his chant and the red ball of dark magic flew at the old man.

"Protectus Patronus!" the old man shouted. A fiery gold and orange phoenix emerged out of his wand and flew to meet the ball. The two spells met in a massive explosion of magic. Small pieces of both spells scattered in all direction.

Kagome saw Shippo grab both Ron and Harry and jump out of the way of a rain of sparks. At the same time, the twins, who had been standing on either side of them, disappeared.

"Ok, as exciting as this is to watch, its gettin' kinda dangerous," Shippo commented as he landed next to Kagome. He put a slightly dazed-looking Harry and Ron down and began to scratch at a smouldering spot on his right shoulder, where he had been hit by a piece of the explosion.

Kagome watched him for a moment. Then she reached a hand up to touch the spot he was scratching. The curse was very powerful, but there was only a small amount of it on his shoulder. It wasn't hard to purify.

"Thanks," Shippo said when she removed her hand. She nodded to him before looking back to the duel.

"Kagome, look out!"

Suddenly Kagome found herself being shoved aside and knocking down Draco as she careened towards the ground. Her mind just barely processed the curse that whizzed past her.

She did, however, hear something snap and Draco yell out in pain as she landed on top of him. When she looked back, she realized that Shippo had slightly overdone it and sent them both flying about five metres away from where they had been previously.

Shippo, meanwhile was throwing foxfire at every black-cloaked figure he could see. Unfortunately, they had gotten somewhat smarter and were deflecting most of it or disappearing and reappearing elsewhere.

Harry, Ron and the twins were doing the same with their magic sticks, with similar results. Although, at least Shippo's targets ended up with singed robes despite their shielding charms.

"Bloody Merlin, Kagome! Get. Off." Draco growled through clenched teeth.

Kagome looked at him and saw that his eyes were closed tightly in pain. Tears streamed down his cheeks. Slowly she got up and as she did, she noticed that the arm she had landed on was laying limply and at an awkward angle.

"Let me get a look at that," she said, mentally preparing herself for an argument.

"Are you any good with healing spells?" Draco asked instead of arguing that he was fine. The question took her with surprise.

"Healing spells?" she asked. "I know all about herbs and I can make some healing potions. . ."

"Don't bother then. One of the others is bound to know some spells to heal this quickly."

Kagome's eyes narrowed, but any response she was going to make was forgotten when something crashed into a nearby bush, which immediately burst into flames.

She spun around just in time to watch the old man send a very powerful curse at the Dark Lord. Seconds before it hit, the Dark Lord vanished and the curse hit two sorcerers behind him who were trying to cover Kohaku as he swung his sickle and chain at yet another masked sorcerer.

The Dark Lord reappeared behind the old man.

The old man was already swinging around to face him. He pointed his wand at the ground in front of the Dark Lord and seconds later the spot exploded, sending dust, dirt and rocks into the Dark Lord's face. The next curse was directed at the Dark Lord himself.

However, the Dark Lord was gone again before it hit. When he appeared again, Kagome saw his red eyes flash angrily and, for a moment, she was reminded of Naraku.

Her eyes went wide. It had been growing so steadily, she hadn't noticed it. Now that she was paying attention to the Dark Lord alone, she noticed that the yjaki was back. She concentrated on his aura. It was dark and impenetrable and the yjaki seemed to be emanating from within it.

Except that now that she was actually paying attention to it, she realized it wasn't quite yjaki. It had something almost demonic in it, but not quite. It wasn't strong enough to be yjaki. Yet it was still incredibly powerful and certainly not at all natural.

Then the Dark Lord disappeared again.

He reappeared on the other side of the old man and immediately cast another curse at him.

At the same moment that the old man cast a shield of some kind, several figures popped up behind him. They were all wearing black cloaks and white masks.

"Crucio!" they cried in one voice.

For several seconds it seemed that their target might just manage to throw off the curse. Eventually, though, he let out a hoarse scream and fell to his knees under the onslaught.

"This is about as far from good as it can possibly get," Draco said from behind her, fear evident in his voice.

Kagome looked back at him. He was now standing, cradling his arm. Kagome winced slightly: it looked as if his shoulder was dislocated. The expression on his face was something between shock and horror.

She felt the magic behind her ebb off and she looked back. The newest arrivals had their sticks still pointed at the old man, but they were no longer cursing him.

'I have to do something,' Kagome thought.

Looking to the side, she saw Shippo defending Harry and an injured Ron. He looked as if he was barely standing.

The twins had been joined by what Kagome assumed was their older brother. They were a little further away, exchanging curses with a group of dark sorcerers, who must've arrived at the same time the ones who cursed the old man did, because they didn't have any battle marks on them yet.

The yjaki coming from the Dark Lord suddenly got stronger. Kagome looked in that direction.

"Oh lookie, lookie," a female voice practically sang from behind Kagome, "what do we have here? Two very, very naughty children, who should've stayed at home."

"Damn," Draco cursed under his breath. Slowly he and Kagome turned around.

"Hello aunt Belatrix," Draco said politely.

'Aunt Belatrix?' Kagome looked to Draco in shock. The blonde simply shrugged.

"What, and you thought you were the only one allowed to know the random people who show up around here?"

"Oh, hello Dragon dear," the lady said brightly. Kagome couldn't see what she looked like, because, like the others, she was wearing a white mask. "I've heard that you've been especially bad. The Dark Lord allowed you the honour of joining his ranks and you left. We don't like people who leave the party early. It's very impolite of you."

She raised her magic stick and aimed it at Draco.

Kagome heard her taking a breath just before something big and yellow sailed through the air and knocked her to the ground.

"Kirara!" Draco cried out. Kagome breathed a sigh of relief as she watched Kirara growling at Draco's aunt Belatrix and holding her down with her paws.

She turned back to the where the Dark Lord was saying something to the old man. They were too far a way though, and Kagome couldn't hear what was being said. The yjaki surrounding the Dark Lord was stronger now.

She registered a small group of the "good guys" trying to fight their way through the mass of masked sorcerers in order to help the old man.

Once again, Kagome put all her effort into concentrating on the Dark Lord's aura.

It was like a tornado of darkness swirling around him at a dizzying pace. But she knew there was something else there; something that was hiding from her. She could feel it. It had to be there.

And then she got a glimpse of something pale gray amongst the black. It was just underneath the surface of his aura. Kagome latched onto the little bit she saw and concentrated on that one spot. Centimetre by centimetre a gray shape revealed itself.

Hidden within the Dark Lord's aura and wrapped around his body, was a giant snake.

* * *

Well, there it is guys! Hope you enjoyed. One of the reasons this took so long to write, was because I had a really hard time with the action sequences, mainly the duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore. So please review and give me your honest opinion about it.

Author's Notes:

**Protectus Patronus** - this spell is my own creation. Just got this image in my mind and thought it sounded kinda cool.

**The Snake** - I'm going to explain this here, 'cause Kagome's never going to get a good explanation for it. The snake surrounding Voldemort is a product of his resurrection. Like his serpent-like appearance and the lovely red eyes.

Oh yes, and Kagome deflecting the killing curse is something I took from the episode with Tsubaki. The snake's from that episode too actually.

Well, I'm off now to find out just how OOC my Draco really is! TTFN


	12. The Shikigami

Hmm. . . several people have pointed out that my story doesn't fit with canon. Especially with what happened in the last chapter (I do actually know the ending of HBP despite not having read the book yet). If you want this fic in a timeline then think of it as the summer after fifth year. That's sort of what I was thinking when I wrote it, but I didn't think it really mattered at the time so I never mentioned it (although I do believe they were discussing their OWLs in the first chapter. . .).

And even without reading the book, I realize that my Draco has gotten progressively more OOC as this fic has progressed. Although, it has allowed me to shove him into the backdrop a bit more and let Kagome take centre stage. Plus, I don't Kirara would able to like anyone as nasty as Draco's supposed to be. Meh, at least I've gotten Kagome right.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed: I had 19 reviews in my inbox the morning after posting my fic! I'm blown away, really, I am.

**Shavaineth **- Yes, that's true: the more human a demon appears, the stronger they are. Which is why the wolves could take such a beating before they were subdued, whereas Kirara was essentially incapacitated by a single killing curse (even if it was incredibly powerful). And even Shippo was in pretty bad shape by the end of the last chapter and he hadn't been fighting for as long as the wolves had. As for Sesshoumaru. . . well, he doesn't really strike me as someone who would go out of his way to help a bunch of humans. Nor do I think he'd get involved in a fight that doesn't concern him. But don't worry, he's not gone for good. He's my favourite character too, after all.

**Uplifted** - Thanks! I'm glad you like how I'm writing Kagome. I've never seen her as all-powerful: I mean, half the time when she saves the day with her powers it's either by accident or a spur of the moment thing (possibly instinct). As for Tom trying to become a demon. . . I've put some explanations into this chapter. Maybe I'll also put some more Jaken in there just for you!

**Fuyu Taki** - Er, nope, that was me thinking I was spelling it right. Oops. He he. I have something to fix in the chapter before that too, so I will go back and fix all the "yjaki" to "jyaki." Eventually. Thanks for catching that. Have some fluffy-shaped cookies.

**Kaikura **- Well, it does take place in England in the 20th century, so there's only so much "Inu Yasha" I can make it. And Sesshy is definitely returning. Inu Yasha. . . well, there's a story there. And you won't hear it 'till the end.

**froggiesrcool **- No mistakes? Yay! Good to know I can still edit when I put my mind to it. : P I don't think Harry, Ron and Draco's temporary truce was a conscious decision, just the result of fighting the same enemy. The only two people I know who can manage to fight the enemy and themselves are Inu Yasha and Sesshoumaru, lol! As for Draco. . . so much has been going on, I don't think that particular reality has had time to sink in yet.

Disclaimer: I sorta own the snake. But that's it. Oh yeah, and the plot. But nothing else.

* * *

A Clash of Cultures

Chapter 12 - The Shikigami

Hidden within the Dark Lord's aura and wrapped around his body, was a giant snake.

As Kagome stared at it, it slowly opened its colourless eyes and met hers. An image of Tsubaki's shikigami flashed before her eyes. Except that unlike Tsubaki's snake, this one did not seem all that menacing. If anything, Kagome thought it looked slightly bored.

"Why didn't the Dark Lord use it in battle?" Kagome wondered.

"Why didn't he use what?" Draco asked, making her jump. She took a breath to calm herself.

"The snake in his aura," Kagome answered, "it looks like a shikigami. I guess I could be wrong about that. . ."

"I don't see anything."

Kagome turned to Draco in surprise. He was squinting and his brow was furrowed in concentration as he was trying to see what she was talking about.

"Can you see his aura?" she asked carefully.

"Umm. . . no," he looked at her thoughtfully, "wizarding magic doesn't really use aura reading. I've never been taught how to see them."

Kagome stared at him incredulously.

"I thought auras were important to magic," she said, "how can you tell how strong your opponent is or what kind of magic they use? Or if they are even human?"

"Wait, you can tell what kind of magic a person uses by looking at their aura?"

"Yes, that's how I knew about the mark on your arm: I saw it in your aura."

"Well, that could certainly come in handy." He paused thoughtfully. "I wonder if Dumbledore can read auras? He did seem to notice that I didn't have the Dark Mark anymore. . ."

"Dumbledore?" Kagome thought the name sounded familiar. Suddenly she remembered what the Dark Lord had said when he had appeared a little while ago. "Is that the name of the old man?"

"Yeah, he's the headmaster at Hogwarts. They say he's one of the most powerful wizards in history."

"Oh."

She turned back to look at the Dark Lord and Dumbledore. The old man was slowly getting to his feet.

'He may be powerful, but he's old,' she thought, 'we have to help him. That snake. . .Draco says he can't see it, because he can't read auras. I wonder if Dumbledore can see it?'

This time, it only too her a few moments to find the snake. It was lazily flicking its forked tongue out, watching Dumbledore's every move with those colourless eyes.

Then it turned white and its eyes glowed red as it raised its head so that it was bobbing above the Dark Lord like an avenging angel.

Kagome brought her concentration back to the Dark Lord. He was casting a spell, binding Dumbledore with some kind of magical rope. She could see it winding around the old man, a thin black strand of magic that started by his shoulders and slowly made its way down to his knees. Then it tightened and the old man winced. The Dark Lord chuckled.

All of a sudden, something plopped down on the ground just behind Kagome. She spun around and gasped.

"Shippo!"

The fox demon looked terrible. He was bleeding profusely from a large cut on the side of his head and was covered in scratches. He looked exhausted. Kagome looked lower and saw that he was carrying Ron, who didn't look much better. There was blood streaming down his left leg and he had a slightly dazed expression on his face.

Harry slid off Shippo's back and helped him put the redhead down. The left side of his t-shirt was covered in blood. Kagome hurried to help him as fast as she could with her injured leg. Just looking at them made her realize how tired she herself was.

She quickly shook it off. The Dark Lord had to be stopped before more people died.

"Protect them," Shippo whispered, collapsing the moment Ron was placed on the ground.

"Shippo!" Harry cried. Kagome left Ron and kneeled down beside the fox demon. She felt his pulse and then put an ear to his chest.

"He's alive, just unconscious," she declared with more than a little relief in her voice.

"Good," Ron said softly, "he saved us. Never thought I'd be feeling grateful to a fox."

"Oh Merlin!" Harry suddenly gasped. "Professor Dumbledore! When did this happen!"

"Huh? What is it Harry?"

"About 15 minutes ago," Draco answered, "a bunch of death eaters suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the middle of their duel and crucioed him."

As they all watched, the Dark Lord cursed Dumbledore with another one of the yellow curses. The old man screamed in pain and Kagome could feel fury begin to roll off Harry in waves. If she had looked at him, she would've seen his face set in an expression of deathly serious determination, his eyes boring into the Dark Lord with a force that should've killed any living thing that came within their field of vision. She also would've noticed Draco step away from him nervously.

But she wasn't watching Harry. Instead her mind was completely focused on the snake surrounding the Dark Lord. It was still hovering above the Dark Lord, its gaze fixed on Dumbledore. He seemed ready to strike. But he wasn't striking.

'He's waiting for orders,' Kagome realized, 'so why doesn't the Dark Lord use him?'

"Is it still there?" Draco asked. Kagome nodded with a frown.

"Is what still there?" Ron asked.

"Kagome says she sees a snake around the Dark Lord."

"I don't see anything," Harry said, snapping out of his rage for long enough to be puzzled.

Kagome's frown deepened at that. Then her eyes widened dramatically as a thought hit her.

'What if doesn't know it's there?'

She thought back to Tsubaki. The dark miko's shikigami had almost seemed like an extension of her powers.

Slowly, Kagome reached back into her quiver and took out an arrow.

"Uh, Kagome. . . I don't think you'll be able to kill You-Know-Who that way," Ron said from where he was laying on the ground behind her. She barely heard him. But Harry and Draco did.

"He's right, Kagome, you can't kill him," Harry agreed.

"Oh, and I suppose you're the only one who can, eh Potter?" Draco sneered sarcastically.

"As a matter of fact I am!" Harry turned to yell at the blonde, the force of his anger pushing Draco back another step.

Kagome paid no attention to the boys as she carefully took aim at the snake's head. She lined up the tip of her arrow at a spot directly between the two glowing, red eyes.

She let go of the arrow.

Through the air it sailed, glowing brighter the further it went. But by the time the snake looked up and saw it, it was too late to get out of the way. The arrow pierced the whirlwind of the Dark Lord's aura and was lost in the incorporeal mass of the snake. The fury of the dark aura intensified.

"Damn it! You missed!" Harry exclaimed. And then shook his head and added: "I knew it wouldn't be that easy."

Kagome huffed.

"My arrow went exactly where I had wanted it to go," she said.

Raspy laughter rang through the park and Kagome looked around her, searching for speakers of some kind, or a megaphone. She saw nothing.

"It's a spell," Harry whispered to her.

"Oh."

"My dear Kagome, I didn't think you were foolish enough to stay. How very Gryffindor of you."

Kagome jumped as the Dark Lord's voice boomed through the park. She looked at him and their eyes met. His held amusement and contempt.

"As truly remarkable as you seemed to be, I certainly was not expecting you to be stupid enough to waste your arrows on me. You don't actually think you can kill me with those, do you?"

Kagome's eyes narrowed.

"A simple arrow wouldn't kill me, no matter what magic you added to it. Even if you did learn to shoot it properly."

The minions that surrounded him laughed. Kagome felt her blood reach boiling point.

"There is nothing wrong with my shooting!" Kagome yelled back at him. "Just because you can't see what I'm shooting at, doesn't mean I missed!"

The laughter stopped. Everyone stared at her.

"Pray, do tell: what were you aiming at exactly? The ghost behind me?"

Kagome heard several chuckles. The Dark Lord opened his mouth to say something else, but all that came out was a strangled cry of pain. His eyes widened in surprise as his whole body suddenly started to convulse. Kagome noticed that his aura had slowed down considerably since her arrow had disappeared in it.

A few of the dark sorcerers approached him nervously. The convulsions stopped for a moment. He pointed at Kagome and the boys with a pale, bony hand.

"Kill them," he commanded.

The first few spells that sailed through the air were deflected by Harry and Draco.

"So what in Merlin's name do we do now, Potter?" Draco asked.

"How should I know?"

"Well, you are the expert on getting out of impossible-to-get-out-of situations, aren't you?"

"What is it Malfoy? Scared already? Expelliarmus!" Ron mocked. He had somehow managed to get to his feet and was now awkwardly standing beside Harry, firing curses as fast as he could.

Suddenly a huge ball of youki impacted with the ground just in front of the masked sorcerers. Everyone's eyes few upwards.

Sesshoumaru's dragon opened its mouth and another ball of youki flew towards the sorcerers. The smart ones disappeared before it hit. The not-so-smart ones were divided between those with singed robes, those with singed bones and those who were far enough away from the blast that they weren't affected by it.

Riding atop the dragon, was Jaken. Still staffless he seemed to be yelling agitatedly. However, Kagome wasn't quite sure who he was yelling at, because he was too high up for anyone to hear him.

When the smart sorcerers reappeared again, they immediately began throwing curses at the dragon. Unlike Kirara though, the dragon didn't even bother trying to avoid getting hit. Its tough scales took in all the curses as if they were nothing. They even deflected a few.

However, then a well-aimed curse struck Jaken. With a cry of surprise, the small demon fell to the ground below, landing with a plop.

The dragon spit two more youki balls and then flew off.

A fairly large group of masked sorcerers began to surround the spot where Jaken lay spread-eagle on the ground. He wasn't moving.

One of the sorcerers fired an experimental curse at him, hitting the side of his leg. Jaken jumped off the ground with a yelp and turned his head frantically in all directions. He looked absolutely terrified.

"Oh look, now that he doesn't have his stick or his dragon anymore, he's quite harmless," taunted one of the sorcerers.

"Hey, let's have some fun," sneered another.

"No. We don't have time for that." A third one raised his magic stick and pointed it at Jaken.

Green light flashed through the air.

* * *

Wow, that's the second chapter I've ended with green light. Hmm. Oh, well, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review!

Author's note:

**Shikigami **- I hope I've done a good job of describing what this is within the body of the story, but just in case I haven't. . . From what I can gather, the closest English definition would be a familiar. Except that it's created by your own magic. I gave the example of Tsubaki's snake, but the two girls that accompany Kikyo in later episodes of the anime are also shikigami. I'm kinda figuring that having a shikigami would mean that you're pretty powerful. But that's just a guess.


	13. Jaken's Savior

**He he.** No one guessed what's coming next. I'm very proud of that fact, actually. You really shouldn't assume anything you know. Especially when I'm in charge of the fic.

Anyway, just thought I'd mentioned that I've finally read HBP, so you can now mention it in your reviews if you want to. Also, just to let you know, this story will be continue to be HBP spoiler-free.

Thank you very, very much to everyone who reviewed. I really appreciate you taking the time.

Onee-chan - The only two people who can pass through the well are Inu Yasha and Kagome. None of the others did pass through the well, they all got here the natural way: they stayed alive for 500 years (except, obviously, for Kagome). That's why they all look older. This includes Kirara.

GoldenRat - Thanks, I'm glad the distinctions I've made between the two types of magic are clear. Actually, one of the first things I did when I started this fic was decide what the differences/similarities would be. I'm happy that you like it.

moonlover825 - I'm glad you liked how I brought in the Inu Yasha characters. I was kinda worried I'd overdone it. But Kagome didn't have to block the killing curse. She could've died and then been revived by Lord Sesshoumaru like Draco was. . .

Uplifted - You're assuming I killed Jaken. Oh, and Kagome had two arrows left, remember? Which means she still has one now. And as for allies. . . remember how there's still one MIA (missing in action)?

Shavaineth - You're right, despite claiming to not caring for anyone, our favourite demon lord always seems to go out of his way to rescue Jaken (or, Rin, but she's long dead at this point in time). As for his entrance. . . well, you'll see. And so will those silly wizards.

shadowwolf888 - Oh, don't worry, I haven't changed anything in the story because of HBP. I always had sort of considered it to be the summer after 5th year, but didn't really feel it was important enough to say specifically.

Lady Sunflower - LOL!

The Angry Generalization - Apparently you're holding your breath for nothing, 'cause the battle is the fic. Well, more or less. Though if you think it's dragging on, then I guess it's good that this is the last chapter. Apart from the epilogue, which will be the aftermath.

Disclaimer: I only own the plot.

Warning: there's a scene in this chapter that's quite a bit more graphic than anything I've written in here so far. Just think of _Inu Yasha_, it can be quite gory at times.

* * *

**A Clash of Cultures**

**Chapter 13 -** Jaken's Savior

"Oh look, now that he doesn't have his stick or his dragon anymore, he's quite harmless," taunted one of the sorcerers.

"Hey, let's have some fun," sneered another.

"No. We don't have time for that." A third one raised his magic stick and pointed it at Jaken.

Green light flashed through the air.

"Jaken!" Kagome cried.

It was gone as quickly and suddenly as it had appeared. And Jaken was still standing.

The sorcerer, whose magic stick was pointing at Jaken, was now staring blankly into space. A thin line of blood appeared down the middle of his face, directly between his eyes. Moments later, in a gush of blood, his head split open, followed by the rest of his body. His body then slid to the ground in two, neatly cut, halves.

"Since when does Avada Kadavra. . ." Harry began.

"It doesn't," Draco cut him off.

"I think I'm going to be sick," said Ron.

There was a second flash of green and the torso of the masked sorcerer who'd been standing next to him flew off. His hips and legs collapsed to the ground in a heap of blood, black cloth and intestines.

"Now I know I'm going to be sick," Ron muttered.

"Weasley, I can't believe I'm about to agree with you on something," Draco said, "but I think I am too."

Jaken suddenly whooped for joy. Then he began jumping up and down and waving his arms about enthusiastically.

"Sesshoumaru-sama! Sesshoumaru-sama!" he cried, tears of joy raining from his eyes.

Everyone turned to where Jaken was looking.

Standing a short distance away was a tall Japanese man with incredibly long, silver hair. He was dressed in a white, silk shirt and beige, light-weight cotton pants. There was a dark red sash tied around his middle, which held two swords in place.

Lord Sesshoumaru didn't seem to have changed much since Kagome had last seen him. While his clothes were obviously more modern, they were loose and breathable. Combined with the sash and swords, they still made him appear like someone slightly out-of-place in the big, modern city that was London. Or maybe that was simply because Kagome could not imagine the demon lord ever being comfortable in a big, noisy city overrun by humans.

Like the others, he looked older. His shoulders were broader and his features slightly heavier, even though they were still very feminine. His eyes looked over the scene before him with a cold, disinterested stare.

"Who's that?" Harry whispered.

"That, is Lord Sesshoumaru," Draco answered in an almost reverent tone.

As if sensing he now had everyone's attention, the demon lord brought his arm up lazily and flicked his wrist. A long green whip emerged out of his fingers and flashed through the air, beheading the sorcerer standing between him and Jaken.

Jaken took advantage of the sudden gap between his attackers and ran across the now headless sorcerer like he would a bridge. He didn't stop running until he was standing in the shadow of his master.

Meanwhile, the sorcerers who were still alive had finally recovered from their initial shock. They aimed their wands at Sesshoumaru. Green and yellow curses, along with a few other ones, flew through the air.

The silver-haired demon didn't even move an eyelash to avoid getting hit and so the curses all hit him directly in the chest. Kagome glanced at the sorcerers and noticed they were all smirking slightly. She rolled her eyes.

'They can't possibly think that it's that easy, can they?' she wondered.

Just then another volley of curses hit Sesshoumaru from the side. Kagome looked to sorcerers who had remained with the Dark Lord and watched them curse their new enemy.

They seemed very surprised indeed that all their efforts were for nought and that the only reaction they got, was Sesshoumaru inclining his head slightly in their direction. Kagome saw his eyes narrow and could vividly imagine the cold, harsh glare they were receiving just then.

It seemed as though the entire battle had frozen around them, everyone waiting for the stranger to either drop dead, blow up. . .or at least move.

Finally an emotionless voice pierced the silence:

"Did you actually think that you could destroy me with that bit of pitiful human magic?"

The words were not spoken very loudly, but as far as the impact they had, he could've screamed them at the top of his lungs. Kagome heard several gasps and saw many wide eyes and gaping mouths.

Draco, however, was standing at ease with his arms crossed and a smug grin on his face. He was also studiously avoiding looking at the bodies of the sorcerers Sesshoumaru had killed.

Everyone waited with baited breath for Sesshoumaru's next move. Waited to see who he would kill next. The "good guys" had expressions ranging from suspicious and wary to hopeful on their faces. Harry kept glancing to Dumbledore between watching the demon lord.

Suddenly Sesshoumaru began walking towards the dark sorcerers. They cringed back as he approached. He stopped when he was a metre in front of the nearest one.

"Move!" he commanded.

They scattered to the sides. The demon lord ignored them as he walked down the aisle they had created, Jaken at his heel. Without needing to be told, the "good guys" cleared a path for him as well.

When both demons were at the spot where the battle had began, before it had moved further towards the centre of the park, Sesshoumaru stopped.

"Jaken," he said, "go find your staff."

Then he walked on towards where the wolves were being magically restrained. Kohaku was already there, attempting to break the bonds.

Suddenly a hoarse scream pierced the silence.

Kagome's head snapped in alarm to where Dumbledore was still tied up with magical rope. She was about to run to help the old man, when she noticed he wasn't the one screaming.

It was the Dark Lord.

His hood had fallen down, exposing a bald, scaly head.

'He really does look like some sort of odd snake demon,' Kagome thought. 'Actually, no. He looks more like an odd snake half-demon. A full demon would look more human in this form."

The Dark Lord was gripping the sides of his head, his inhuman features twisted in an expression of a concentration so complete, it was painful.

"It looks like someone's trying to attack his mind. . ." Harry began with scepticism in voice, ". . . but Voldemort's a very strong Legitimens and Occlumens. Who could possibly be that powerful?"

Kagome had no idea what the boy was talking about, but she had noticed that the Dark Lord's aura was changing. The dark whirlwind had sped up again dramatically, but now there were spots of gray slowly peeping in from the centre. Suddenly, a single ray of light pierced the darkness.

Kagome smiled. It was working! Her arrow was purifying the Dark Lord's aura! She didn't even notice that the Dark Lord had begun screaming again.

Another ray escaped from the dark whirlwind. Then another. Soon, there was so much light, that the dark aura looked gray. Then the darkness began to disintegrate completely. Red eyes appeared in the midst of the light. They glared murderously at Kagome.

The sorcerers who had converged worriedly around their master, yelled out in alarm as a massive white snake suddenly sprang out of him. It was about four metres long, its head the size of a large watermelon.

"What the hell!" Harry cried out. Even the old man watched the snake with wide eyes. And the Dark Lord had stopped screaming. Instead his eyes were glued to the snake, a look of complete astonishment on his face.

However, the snake paid no heed to any of the sorcerers. It whipped its head up and hissed at Kagome. Its head still held high, it slithered towards her.

Closer and closer it came, never taking its eyes off Kagome. The young miko had paled considerably, her eyes wide as she stood frozen to the spot. Her whole existence was contained in those red eyes; eyes that were steadily getting bigger. Then the snake began to open its mouth and her vision was filled with two long fangs.

And yet, she never took her eyes off the red ones approaching her.

Until suddenly the snake's head wavered slightly to the right. Then the snake stopped completely. Its head whipped to the left and it hissed. It took a few moments for Kagome to snap out of the daze she was in. She then realized that someone had sent a curse at the snake.

At the exact moment she realized this, the snake launched itself at its attacker. Lethal fangs sank easily into the flesh of the English wolf.

"Nooo!" Harry yelled.

True to his nature, the wolf howled with pain. As soon as the snake's fangs released him, he collapsed to the ground.

"Remus!" someone cried out in despair.

The snake hissed at the sorcerers as its head bobbed over the body of its victim. Then it twisted its body so that it was looking back in Kagome's direction.

Just in time to see the arrow that pierced its body.

The snake's jaws opened in a silent scream as a spiral of intense light enveloped it. Its body disintegrated, leaving a charred skeleton behind, which turned to dust and was blown away by a breeze.

While just about everyone was staring intently at the remains of the snake, Kagome noticed the Dark Lord gasp and collapse to his knees. Seconds later, the magical rope around Dumbledore disappeared and the old man also sank to the ground.

Then next thing she knew, Kagome watched as Harry was running towards the English wolf. Without thinking, she ran after him. No one tried to stop them.

There was a girl was already kneeling beside the English wolf when Harry reached him. He stopped in front of them.

"Is he. . . ?" he asked softly. The girl looked up. There were tears streaming down her cheeks. She nodded. Kagome thought the girl looked familiar.

'Did she use to have green hair?' she asked herself.

"Kagome," a harsh and raspy voice said. Kagome stopped and watched as the Dark Lord carefully stood up with the help of his followers. Once he was standing, he looked up at Kagome. His eyes were bloodshot, but they were no longer glowing bright red. He looked incredibly tired. But none of that made the evil twinkle in his eye seem less dangerous, or the tone of his voice any less threatening.

"Today I made a mistake," the Dark Lord stated calmly as he held her gaze, "I underestimated you Kagome. For that you will pay. Oh, do not make the mistake of thinking you have beaten me, because I am far from being beaten. I only need a little bit of time to regain my strength and when that time passes, I will find you. There is no where in the world that you can hide, so that I won't be able to find you. And when I find you, then, dear Kagome, you will suffer the consequences of crossing me."

'I bet I could find somewhere to hide, where you couldn't find me!' Kagome yelled at him in her head.

"She won't suffer anything, because you're not leaving here alive!"

Kagome turned her head, almost half-expecting to see dog-eared boy with silver hair. Of course, it wasn't Inu Yasha, but Harry who had shouted the threat. He was standing with his magic stick pointed at the Dark Lord.

"Reducto!" he yelled and a curse shot out from the end of his stick.

The Dark Lord easily blocked the curse. Then he looked at Harry and smirked.

"Aaah, Harry. . . so eager to die, are you? But I don't think I'm going to kill you today. No, I think I'll kill you another day."

Then, with a small 'pop,' he was gone. The masked sorcerers followed suit and once again, Kagome got the momentary impression of being stuck inside a huge popcorn maker.

"Well, now that the battle's over," Dumbledore said, making Kagome jump, because she hadn't realized he was standing so close to her now, "Arthur, I think you should inform Molly that the battle is over and that her youngest son is alive, if not entirely well." He then turned to the sorcerer with the odd eye.

"Alastor, would you please be so kind as to let St. Mungo's know we will need their assistance with our wounded."

The two men nodded and also disappeared with small popping noises.

* * *

Well, here it is: the end of the battle. Only one more chapter to go now. A lot is going to happen in it and a lot is going to be explained, so stay tuned. And in the meantime, review please! 

Author's Note: I guess it's gotten quite obvious by now that Inu Yasha's not going to show up. Why? Because he's in the feudal era at the moment. Don't worry, you will get more of an explanation than that in the next chapter. It's just that for some reason, when I envisioned this fic, it was without Inu Yasha in it. I'm not sure why, but even now I really don't know where I would've been able to stick him in. Though, I must admit, the image of him taking a plane to England is rather hilarious (lol, ayamegurl2468!).

On a completely different note: I am currently looking for a beta for a new fic that I will begin writing once I'm done this one. It's an HP/Buffy crossover and will pick up after book six in the Potterverse and the last season of "Angel" in the Buffyverse. There will also be a couple of OCs: some more important and some less. If you're interested either let me know in your review or drop me an e-mail (cvrlikATyahooDOTcom). I can send you a synopsis of the story or explain more about it if you want me to. I'd really love a beta who can be very critical and knows both fandoms well. Thanks!


	14. Introductions and Answers

**Hey guys!** I am soooo sorry for taking so long to post the conclusion of this story. Stuff came up (went away for a week, then started school again, then had internet trouble). Anyway, as an apology, I've written a bonus chapter - basically a fun thing that gives my version of what happens to our characters after the events of the summer.

I've made a conscious effort to answer as many of your questions as possible in this chapter, so hopefully I've caught the most important ones. Or left them for the bonus chapter. I hope this chapter's doesn't disappoint.

Oh, and for those of you who were confused: yes, the snake did kill Remus.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I never cease to be amazed at how many of you there are.

And I'm going to be lazy and not answer anyone's reviews simply because I think I've pretty much answered all your questions in in the last two chapters. Well, I hope I have anyway. That, plus I'm having a bit of internet trouble and am borrowing my roommate's computer in order to upload this.

Disclaimer: I own only the plot. And the multicoloured aliens. No, wait - there are no multicoloured aliens. Nevermind. I guess it's just the plot then.

* * *

**A Clash of Cultures**

**Chapter 14 -** Introductions and Farewells

"Are you alright, Professor?" Harry asked Dumbledore with a worried look. The old man smiled while leaning on the redhead Kagome hadn't seen since their group had arrived.

"I've certainly been better Harry, but I'll live," he answered softly, his voice hoarse from screaming. "Thank you Bill," he told the redhead and pulled away to stand on his own.

Then he looked down at the body of the English wolf, who was being cradled in the now dark-haired girl's arms. She wasn't alone in her grief either. Even Ron had managed to limp over with Shippo's help (who had recovered enough from the battle that he was able to stand) and was gazing at the man with teary eyes.

"Friends," Dumbledore began softly and everyone turned tired, grief-stricken eyes to look at him, "we have lost loved ones today. They are, however, beyond our help now. There will be a time for grieving, but it is not now. Right now we must help those we can."

There was a general murmur of agreement. The previously green-haired girl wiped her eyes with her sleeve and sniffed one last time before carefully placing the wolf's head on the grass. Then she stood up and left, apparently determined not to look back.

Kagome followed her with her eyes to where a group of people in white robes were rushing about. Dumbledore slowly walked over to them.

"Harry!"

"Ron!"

"Kagome!"

Kagome and the boys turned their heads at the shouts. There were three girls running towards them. Kagome recognized her cousin and the girl who had first appeared with Ron and Harry, but had no idea who the third one was.

"Oh Merlin, you're alive!" the bushy-haired girl cried in relief as she threw herself at Harry. The surprised boy winced as she embraced him tightly.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley!" the girl Kagome didn't recognize shouted as she stormed up to Ron. "What in Merlin's name did you think you were doing! Frightening mum half to death like you did! You'll be lucky if she ever lets you step foot out of the house again!"

'She has to be his sister,' Kagome thought as she watched the girl verbally attack the older boy, who seemed to want nothing more than to disappear into the ground, 'she looks a lot like those twins that were here earlier.'

"Reminds me a bit of Sango and Miroku," Shippo chuckled from beside Kagome. She looked up at him thoughtfully.

"Did those two ever settle down together?" she asked. Shippo looked down at her in surprise before smiling sadly.

"Yeah, they did," he answered. Then he smirked. "And they had lots and lots of children."

Kagome smiled, a special sort of warmth forming in her mind at the thought of her friends finding such happiness.

However, she was not allowed to linger in that feeling, because suddenly someone grabbed her by the shoulders and turned her away from Shippo. Her wide eyes looked into those of her cousin.

"Kagome, are you alright?" Cho asked frantically, her eyes sweeping her body, taking in every single scratch and bruise before widening at the sight of the gashes on her leg. "Oh dear Merlin, you're hurt!"

Kagome rolled her eyes.

"I'm fine Cho, really, it's nothing-" she began.

"Nothing? Nothing! Kagome you've been very sick during the past year and you really shouldn't be doing anything strenuous at all. Merlin, I was supposed to be protecting you and instead I walked you right into a death eater trap. . ."

"Kagome. . . sick. . . can't do anything strenuous. . ." was all Shippo got out before he broke into peels of laughter.

The girls all turned to him, noticing him for the first time.

"Umm. . . who's that?" the red-headed one asked.

"One of Kagome's friends from Japan," Harry answered.

"How can he laugh at a time like this?" demanded Harry and Ron's friend. "People are dead and he's laughing!"

"Well, he did save our lives. . ." Ron said carefully, not wanting the girl to think badly of Shippo, yet not at all being able to explain the fox demon's behaviour.

Kagome was the only one of the group not confused. She glared at the fox demon.

"Well, I had to have some sort of reason for missing so much school," she stated in an even voice. Shippo sobered up almost immediately, although the amusement in his eyes didn't die down in the least.

"What is so funny, Shippo?" a new voice asked English with a very heavy Japanese accent. Everyone turned to look at Kohaku and gasped. Kohaku was covered in blood, some of which, Kagome was sure, was actually his own. There was a deep gash just over his left eye and his clothes were torn in more than one place, exposing the scratches and bruises that covered his body.

"Oh, just that the wizards in their infinite wisdom seem to think that Kagome is a weak, sickly little thing that can't take a few scratches and bruises," Shippo answered with a very, very amused smirk. Kohaku raised an eyebrow and gave Kagome an amused look.

She rolled her eyes again and noticed Draco giving her a calculating look.

"Ron, Harry, there you are!"

Suddenly a plump, red-haired woman ploughed her way into the centre of the group. She wasted no time and quickly began examining Harry and Ron for injuries with her magic stick. As she examined them, she never stopped berating them for being irresponsible, putting themselves in danger and making everyone worry about them. Kagome was actually quite impressed.

Shippo and Kohaku watched with unreadable expressions on their faces and Draco was smirking.

When she was done with her examinations, the woman straightened up and turned around. That was when she spotted Kagome.

"Oh my, you must be Kagome," she exclaimed and hurried over to her, "I'm Ron's mum, Molly; Cho's told me all about you. I can't imagine how exhausted you must be after such an ordeal, as sick as you are. Honestly, muggle medicines are simply horrendous. A young think like you shouldn't be sickly. . ."

Shippo burst out laughing again.

"Alright, I have to know," Draco announced while everyone else was staring at Shippo again, "Kagome, why does everyone seem to think you're sickly? I've spent the last several hours with you and I've seen nothing to indicate that. In fact, I'd say you're in wonderful physical shape, better than most people I know."

"I hate to say this, but Malfoy's right," Harry said a moment of silence later, "you did some pretty amazing things out there, most of which I never even thought were possible. There is no way you are convincing me you're sick. And if you are, then it's certainly the oddest sickness I've ever heard about and could you please tell me how to catch it."

"What are you talking about?" Cho asked, confused.

"What did she do that's so amazing?" Hermione added with a frown.

"Well, let's see. . ." Draco began, counting off on his fingers as he talked, "first she purified my Dark Mark, then she killed off half of the Dark Lord's dementors, then it turns out she's friends with a bunch of Japanese demons who all showed up to help her, then she deflected the killing curse and as her grand finale, she weakened the Dark Lord's power by doing something I can't even begin to understand let alone explain."

Shocked silence. No one even moved as they stared first at Draco, then at Kagome, blinking occasionally.

"Well, I did say she was a remarkable girl," Dumbledore whispered, watching her with curiosity and a twinkle in his eye. Kagome's head snapped to where he was standing.

'I hadn't noticed him come back again,' she thought as silence descended on the group again. She squirmed inwardly, hating all the attention. Especially since they would all want an explanation.

It was Kohaku, who interrupted the silence.

"Kagome," he said softly. Molly took one look at him and gasped.

"Oh my poor dear, you need a healer immediately. I can't believe you're still standing!" She went to take his arm to take him to a healer, or maybe convince him to sit down, but Kohaku tore away from her grasp.

"Leave me alone woman!" he snapped.

"You watch your mouth young man!"

Kohaku chuckled darkly and turned his head so that he was looking at Ron's mother sideways.

"I have not been a young man for quite some time. Not since I killed my entire family with my own hands."

Molly froze, eyes wide. Kohaku's tone left no room for argument. He wasn't lying.

"That was five hundred years ago," he added in a whisper. He ignored everyone's shocked faces and turned back to Kagome.

"Five hundred years is a long time," he continued in Japanese. "You asked how you defeated Naraku without completing the Shikon Jewel. The answer is: you didn't. You had a complete jewel and this is how you get the last piece."

He walked up to Kagome and went down on one knee before her on the ground.

"Take it. Take the shard from my back."

Kagome looked down at him, horror clearly written all over her face.

"Kohaku. . ." she whispered, ". . .but if I take the shard out, then you-you'll. . ."

"Die?" He looked up at her with a bitter smile and sad eyes. "I should've died five hundred years ago, Kagome. And in fact, ever since then I've wanted nothing more than to die, to forever lie in peace, to forget. But you cursed me. You gave me life. You gave me five hundred years during which to think about what I've done, the people I've killed. Now please, let me join my family. Lift this curse."

It felt like a river was trying to sprout from behind Kagome's eyes and a huge rock from that river had managed to get lodged in her throat. She closed her eyes and steeled herself for what she had to do. She couldn't say no to his request. He was going through hell and she was the only one who could stop it, because only she could see where the Shikon Jewel Shard was.

She nodded and heard his relieved sigh.

Then she opened her eyes and moved behind him. Slowly she reached out to where she could clearly see the Shikon Jewel Shard glowing in between Kohaku's shoulder blades. It was gray, not completely corrupted, but not pure either. It was how she felt at the moment, about to kill the little brother of one of the best friends she'd ever had.

Tears sprang into her eyes and she had to use her left hand to wipe them away, because her right was frozen, hovering two inches above the shard.

Everyone stared at her, but she didn't see them. She didn't see the confusion written on the sorcerer's faces, or the sadness in Shippo's eyes. She didn't notice the wolves approach from behind her. All she could see was Sango's face as she watched her little brother disappear once again into the distance on Kagura's feather. She saw her own brother, Souta.

Kagome gulped and willed her hand to cover the remaining two inches, until she could feel the faint tingle of magic from the shard brushing against her finger.

She stopped and then slowly pulled away, taking a step back.

"I-I can't. . ." she sobbed, "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Kohaku, but I can't."

Kohaku's entire body sagged; he closed his eyes tightly and clenched his fists.

"Kagome?" one of the sorcerers asked carefully, but she couldn't tell which one.

Suddenly Kagome was roughly shoved aside as someone strode past her. She looked up through the tears in her eyes and saw Sesshoumaru standing over Kohaku. With one mighty swipe, his green-tipped claws dug into the boy's back at the exact spot where Kagome's hand had been only moments ago. Kohaku screamed in pain and arched his back.

Then Sesshoumaru pulled his hand out and amidst the blood and pieces of flesh in his hand, Kagome could see the Shikon Jewel Shard.

The group surrounding them gasped and stared in horror at the scene. Especially those who hadn't been present for the fight. And then Kohaku did something that shocked them even more. He smiled.

"Arigato," they all heard him whisper, before he closed his eyes and his body plopped lifelessly onto the soft grass. Then they watched as his body began to whiter and decay on the spot, five hundred years of change happening instantaneously until all that remained were his blackened bones.

And that was when Kagome broke down, falling to her knees as sobs racked her body. In an instant, Shippo was by her side and rocking her in a warm embrace.

"Shhh. . . it's alright Kagome," he whispered to her, "it had to be done. But don't worry, you'll be seeing him again soon."

'I know it had to be done,' Kagome thought, 'but that doesn't make it any easier.'

Just then a shadow fell over the two of them. Kagome looked up, knowing instinctively it was Sesshoumaru.

"Thank you," she said quietly. He nodded and she lowered her head against Shippo's shoulder.

"This Sesshoumaru's debt is now repaid," he announced. Kagome's head snapped up. She wiped the tears from her eyes and stood up.

"What do you mean?" she asked. "What debt?"

"You saved Rin and Jaken once," he said, "and then asked this Sesshoumaru to, in return, come here today, because you would need his help. Because there would be something that you wouldn't be able to do." The demon lord cocked his head at her shocked expression. "During the five hundred years since that time, This Sesshoumaru slowly developed a curiosity as to why you would need his help somewhere half-way across the world and what exactly it was that you, a powerful miko, could not do."

He paused and then stretched his hand out to her, palm up.

"I believe you will be needing this."

He was handing her the jewel shard. Kagome stared at it for a moment before slowly reaching out to take it.

"No, Kagome, don't touch it!" Harry yelled at her. "I can feel the dark magic from here."

"Kagome, Harry's right, it's dangerous!" Molly added and Kagome could've sworn she felt Sesshoumaru restraining himself from rolling his eyes.

She picked up the shard and closed her hand around it, feeling her magic wrapping itself around the shard, inching its way into the crystal. When she opened her hand, the jewel was pure again.

More gasps followed.

"Wow," someone said, Kagome wasn't quite sure who. She looked at the sorcerers. Even the old man looked impressed.

"Kagome here's the only person in the entire world who can do that," Shippo said, beaming with pride.

"What is it?" the bushy-haired girl asked.

"It's a shard from the Shikon no Tama," Kagome answered.

"That's the Shikon Jewel, otherwise known as the Jewel of Four Souls," Shippo clarified.

"But that's impossible," Draco blurted out, "only two people in all of history ever possessed the power to purify the Shikon Jewel: the priestess Kikyo and. . . and her reincarnation. . ."

Draco looked from Kagome to Shippo, to Lord Sesshoumaru, to where Kohaku's bones still lay on the ground. His eyes widened as a look of realization spread across his face. He looked directly at Kagome.

"How?" he asked. "That all happened five hundred years ago. . ."

"The Bone Eater's Well," Shippo answered for her, "her grandfather cares for the shrine where it's located."

Draco stared at her. "Bloody hell," was all he said.

Harry and Ron exchanged a look and then looked at their friend.

"Hermione?" Ron asked. The girl shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

"Haven't a clue," she said. Harry turned to Kagome.

"Ok, Malfoy's speechless," he said, "and believe me, that's quite the accomplishment. What's this jewel? How did you get rid of the dark magic on it? And what's this about a priestess and a well?"

Kagome shifted nervously from foot to foot. She took a deep breath.

"I'm a miko," she said, "and I travel to the . . . uhh. . . past because of the Shikon Jewel. It's broken and I have to help put it back together so that Naraku can't get it."

"A miko!" Dumbledore looked astonished. Then his expression turned thoughtful. "Yes, yes, that does make sense. Fascinating! That kind of magic hasn't been practiced since the Wizarding World spread to Japan about four hundred years ago."

"That was a truly tragic occurrence," Sesshoumaru noted in disgust. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow.

"I apologize, where are my manners? I am Albus Dumbledore and-"

"I am aware of who you are, human."

The sorcerers looked outraged.

"He's like Malfoy," Ginny whispered to her brother.

"Only much, much worse," Ron whispered back, a knowing look on his face.

"Then I'm afraid you have me at an advantage," the old sorcerer didn't seem fazed by Sesshoumaru's rudeness, "may I ask who you are?"

There was a pause during which the demon lord looked at the old man with cold, hard eyes. He seemed to be deliberating whether or not to tell him his name.

"I am Sesshoumaru, Lord of the Western Lands and eldest son of Inu Tashio," he finally stated.

"Oh. . . I see."

Dumbledore looked Sesshoumaru over, as if seeing him for the first time, a mixture of amazement, respect and even a bit of fear in his eyes.

"So are you good or evil?" Harry asked with scepticism in his eyes. Sesshoumaru inclined his head to look at Harry.

"I am a daiyoukai," he said, "I am above your silly human philosophies."

Harry's eyes lit up with anger as he took a step towards Sesshoumaru. Hermione was the only one who noticed the horrified look on Kagome's face. She quickly grabbed her friend's arm.

"Harry, no," she said. There was a spark of recognition in the demon lord's eyes.

"So, you are Harry Potter: the boy who is supposed to save the Wizarding World?" Sesshoumaru asked with a raised eyebrow.

Harry nodded with a frown.

"You are nothing but a weak human boy. You will obviously require a lot of help if you are to accomplish this feat."

Before anyone could protest, he turned his back on them. He unsheathed one of his swords and took several steps towards the English wolf's body.

The sorcerers around him all took out their wands and pointed them at him. He ignored them and before anyone could so much as mutter a spell, Shesshoumaru swung the sword across the dead body.

Then he replaced the sword and strode away.

The sorcerers ran to their comrade's body.

"What did he do?" Harry asked no one in particular.

"I was sure the sword went through him. . ." Hermione added with an equally flabbergasted expression on her face.

"The Tenseiga doesn't cut anything," Kagome pointed out. They all turned to her.

"Tenseiga. . .? Oh, is that the name of the sword?" Harry asked.

Kagome nodded. Harry and Ron frowned.

"What's the point of having a sword that doesn't cut anything?" Ron asked.

"Oh, don't tell me that the Gryffindor Know-it-All has never heard of the Tenseiga!" Draco sneered. Hermione glared at him and was about to retort when Ron gasped.

"Oh, well, why don't you see for yourself what the sword does," Draco added, gesturing to the ground.

They all looked to where the English wolf was laying. . . and groaning.

"Re-Remus?" Harry fell to his knees beside his friend.

"Amazing. . ." Dumbledore whispered.

"Merlin's beard!" whispered Molly.

"But, that's impossible. . ." Hermione said with a stunned expression on her face.

"Clearly not," Draco sneered. Harry's head shot up to look at him, a look of realization in his eyes.

"You. . . this is how you were revived, isn't it?"

Draco nodded. Harry looked down at the man, whose head he was cradling in his arms. The wolf, Remus, was looking around with a bewildered expression.

"H-Harry? What happened?" he asked softly. "I remember the snake. It bit me and then. . . I can't remember what happened afterwards."

"You died," Draco stated simply, "and then Lord Sesshoumaru brought you back to life."

Remus's eyes widened. He looked to Harry and then to Dumbledore, who confirmed what Draco had just told him.

"Wow, I don't believe it!" came Kouga's voice from just behind Kagome. "Sesshoumaru used Tenseiga and there was no pleading or grovelling required to get him to do it!"

Everyone turned to him. The wolf demon seemed truly bewildered by this new development.

"Actually, that's the second person he's revived today," Ginta pointed out and the other three wolves came up behind their leader.

"Second? Who was the first?" Ron's sister asked.

"Me," Draco answered.

"Oh."

Ayame smiled and shook her head.

"I swear he does things like this just to throw us off," she said in English, "purely for shock value. . .and to always keep us guessing as to what he'll do next."

"Wouldn't surprise me," Kouga snorted.

"You know, a sword like that would be very helpful. . ." Hermione began thoughtfully.

"Forget it," Shippo interrupted, "the Tenseiga is the only such sword in the world. You'd have to fight Sesshoumaru for it. Besides, only a full demon can use it anyway."

"Well, maybe we could convince. . ."

"Like I said, forget it."

"Sesshoumaru doesn't like humans very much; he'd never agree to help you," Kouga agreed.

"Doesn't like them very much?" Shippo asked sarcastically. "Try: barely tolerates them."

"Why doesn't he like humans?" Harry asked. The demons all looked at him coldly with 'you have got to be kidding me' looks on their faces.

"Because he's a very powerful demon lord," Kouga finally supplied, "and humans are weak, pathetic creatures that are therefore beneath him and, for the most part, unworthy of his attention."

"What! How could be possibly think that!" Hermione yelled in outrage.

Shippo rolled his eyes.

"You're talking about someone who's been known to single-handedly slaughter entire human armies for getting in his way," he said.

"Listen," Ayame cut in before any of the sorcerers could say anything else, "Sesshoumaru is Sesshoumaru and nothing you do or say will ever change how he thinks. Just be grateful that he brought your friend back and leave it at that."

"Besides, Lord Sesshoumaru thinks that most demons are beneath him too," Ginta added. The rest of the demons chuckled and Kirara meowed in her little kitty form.

"Oh Merlin, what a sweet cat!" Cho exclaimed.

"And it's hurt, the poor thing," the red-headed girl added, a look of sympathy on her face. She walked over to Kirara and scratched her behind the ear.

"That's odd," Hermione said, "I've never heard of a cat with two tails before."

"Neither have I," said Molly, eyeing the cat suspiciously, "I wonder who she belongs to."

"She's mine," Draco said, moving towards the two-tailed cat. He stopped several paces later and said thoughtfully: "At least she's here with me anyway. I'm not really sure she 'belongs' to anyone."

Kirara meowed in approval and then nimbly leaped onto Draco's shoulder. Draco smiled at her and scratched her behind her ears.

"Funny, I never would've thought that you'd have a pet, Malfoy," the red-headed girl said as she stood up, "especially not anything that cute."

Ron snorted and Harry looked at the exchange with amusement. Draco smirked.

"She may seem cute and cuddly, but she did manage to subdue and capture Bellatrix LeStrange."

"She what!"

Kagome smiled and winked at Kirara, before turning to the other demons. They were whispering amongst themselves and looking as if they were ready to leave. She walked over to them.

"Are you leaving?" she asked.

"Yeah," Shippo answered, "it's about time we were going. You're safe now and we don't really want to be around when the wizards realize just how dangerous we are, despite the fact that we just helped them."

"Wizards are stupid that way," agreed Kouga, "they know about magic and what they call 'magical creatures' such as demons and werewolves, but they look at us as something dark, something that needs to be contained."

"Not that they could contain us if they tried," Ayame added, "but, well, Sesshoumaru isn't exactly known for his tolerance and I wouldn't put it past him to take out Tokijin if they got too annoying."

"This Sesshoumaru would never waste a powerful sword like the Tokijin on mere humans," a cold voice stated. Kouga jumped in surprise and looked behind him, frowning.

"I thought you left already," he snarled. Sesshoumaru raised an eyebrow.

"Where are you going to go?" Kagome asked Shippo, who was standing nearest to her.

"Why, home of course," Shippo said, as if were the most obvious thing in the world, "we've done what we came here to do."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh Kagome," Ayame smiled and rolled her eyes, "you're a smart girl, surely you didn't think we all just happened to show up at exactly the right time and right place by accident did you?"

Kagome didn't answer. She honestly hadn't given much thought to why they were all here. She had been too happy to see them. Ayame chuckled.

"You told us to come, told us you'd be in danger and need our help."

"You even gave us precise instructions," Shippo added, taking a small slip of paper out of his pocket and handed it to her. Kagome recognized her own handwriting immediately. She even recognized the piece of paper as belonging to the small, "Hello Kitty" notebook her brother had given to her for her last birthday, although it was faded and starting to fall apart around the edges.

On it was written today's date, the approximate time she and Cho had arrived and then simply: "Hyde Park, London, England, Europe - don't worry, you'll understand one day".

She smiled and handed the note back to Shippo.

"So, I basically asked you all to come too?" she said.

"Well, really you just asked me to be there," Shippo explained, "but Kouga at the time was still convinced you'd become his mate and so immediately swore he'd go to protect you as well. Everyone else just sorta tagged along."

"And arrived before you did," Hakkaku pointed out with a smirk. Shippo mock glared at him. Kagome looked around and when her eyes landed on the silver-haired demon lord who was now standing on the other side of the park with Jaken and his dragon, she suddenly realized something.

"Where's Inu Yasha?" she asked. "Why didn't he come?"

The demons looked at each other uncertainly. It was Ayame who finally broke the silence.

"I'm sorry Kagome, but we can't tell you what happened to him."

"It's not that he didn't want to come, but he couldn't. He-he's not really around. . ." Kouga looked as if he was choosing his words carefully, not wanting to give anything away.

Kagome's eyes filled with tears.

"He's dead, isn't he?" she whispered.

"Kagome," Shippo said with honest regret in his eyes, "we really can't tell you anything. It could change the way things turn out and Naraku has to be defeated, no matter what." He paused. "But if it makes you feel any better, in the end, he chose you."

"Me?" Kagome looked at him with confusion.

"Yes, he chose you over Kikyo."

Kagome smiled sadly.

"Don't worry, Kagome-neesan," Ginta said kindly, "it'll all be over soon."

"Just remember that things are never as bad as they seem," Ayame added.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Shippo suddenly exclaimed. He unbuttoned his front jacket pocket and took out a ball-point pen. He then grabbed Kagome's hand and wrote something on it. When he was done, he put the pen back in his pocket while Kagome inspected her hand. There was a phone number written on it.

"It's my cell number. Call, after you destroy Naraku. I have a feeling you might be needing some help afterwards."

Kagome's eyebrows went up in amusement. Shippo frowned in annoyance.

"What! It's the 21st century, not the Feudal Era!"

Kagome blushed.

"I know, it's just. . . well. . . strange talking to you about cell phones and such," she said and the others chuckled.

"Kagome, dear, we'd better take care of those wounds of yours," came Molly's voice from beside her as the woman touched her shoulder. There was confusion and a touch of concern in her voice.

"Yeah, you get yourself healed up Kagome," Kouga agreed with Molly in English, "we have to go anyway."

"Take care of yourself, Kagome," Ayame added.

"Bye Kagome-neesan!"

"See you later, Kagome-neesan!"

Kagome waved to the wolves as they turned and began to walk towards Lord Sesshoumaru. She then turned to Shippo, who enveloped her in a hug.

"Good-bye Kagome," he said and then let go, taking a step back, "and good luck."

He smiled and then was gone, running after the others. Kagome smiled, but could feel tears threatening to fall. She knew she'd be crying herself to sleep tonight.

"Where are they going?" Harry asked, coming up beside her to watch the demons congregate around Sesshoumaru.

"Home," Kagome answered.

"Well, it's just as well," said a very angry Cho, "because you, cousin, have a lot of explaining to do. Starting with that boy. Sesshoumaru, or whatever his name was, killed him right in front of your eyes and you didn't do anything to stop him. You actually thanked him!"

Kagome groaned inwardly. She felt sorely tempted to run after the demons and ask them to take her home rather than face everyone's questions. She looked off and saw Draco standing over his father's body, his head bowed and Kirara sitting on his left shoulder.

Ignoring the questions and protests around her, Kagome walked over to the blonde boy.

"Why didn't you ask Sesshoumaru to revive him?" she asked. Draco shrugged.

"I didn't think of it," he said quietly. There was a moment of silence. "Besides, I think that maybe it's better this way."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it wasn't your fault." Draco looked at her and smiled. "If anything, I should be thanking you. You saved my life."

Kagome smiled and nodded to him, tactfully ignoring the tears she saw in his eyes.

* * *

A little further away, the demons had gathered around Lord Sesshoumaru. Shippo took one last look at Kagome as she walked over to the blonde boy Kirara had befriended.

"Don't worry, Shippo," Ayame said gently, "she'll do just fine, you know that."

"Yeah, I know," Shippo answered, "and there's only about a month to go before she comes through the well for the last time before it seals up again."

"Here that, Sesshoumaru-sama," Kouga grinned, "less than a month to go before the well seals up."

Sesshoumaru glanced at Kouga with a slight frown.

"This Sesshoumaru is not looking forward to seeing his younger brother again," he announced before leaping into the air and flying off.

"Wait for me, Sesshoumaru-sama!" Jaken cried hysterically from atop the dragon Ahun. "Wait for me!"

He grabbed the reins and Ahun was suddenly in the air, following behind her master. Shippo and the wolf demons laughed and followed on the ground, heading for Shippo's convertable.

The next time Kagome turned around, they were all gone.

THE END

* * *

Author's notes: Anyone still confused about the characters who aren't named, because Kagome doesn't find out their names? I'm hoping I made it clear throughout the story, but just in case I haven't:

1. The red-head who was essentially paired with Remus for most of the action scenes was Charlie (hence his interest in the dragons, that were popping up).

2. The green-haired girl who's hair was later black when she cradled Remus's head in her arms is Tonks. If you've read HBP, then I think you know why she was so upset about Remus.

3. And yes, the third girl, who showed up with Hermione and Cho, was Ginny.

And aaahh, yes, Bellatrix LeStrange. . . I noticed she kinda got lost in the shuffle of events. Needless to say, she didn't apparate away with the other death eaters, not with Kirara sitting on her. She was arrested and taken away to wherever it is they're taking death eaters now that Azkaban's closed down. Just thought I should mention that.

As for Kohaku: yes, I do realize that any of them could've killed him. But Kagome had to get the jewel shard in order to take it back with her and use it to defeat Naraku. And seriously, who the hell wants to walk around for several hundred years with a Shikon Jewel shard in their pocket? I think it was something the demons all collectively recognized had to be done by Kagome.

And now onward to the Bonus Chapter!


	15. What Came After

This was just me having a bit of fun. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own only the plot. Nothing else.

* * *

**A Clash of Cultures**

**Chapter 15 - **What Came After

"Oh Merlin, what an adorable cat!" Pansy cried the moment she spotted Kirara laying on the seat next to her friend, Draco. She dropped her trunk onto the floor of the Hogwarts Express compartment and kneeled down next to the cat.

"Kirara, this is my friend Pansy," Draco said, looking down at the cat, "Pansy, this is Kirara."

Pansy gave him an odd look, before turning back to Kirara.

"Hi, Kirara, you are one of the cutest things I have ever seen. Oh. You have two tails. . . .Draco, why does your cat have two tails?"

"Because she's a Japanese demon cat."

"A demon cat, Malfoy?" a new voice asked from the doorway.

"Hello Blaise, and yes, she's a demon cat. She'll be helping us with quidittch this year too."

"And how exactly does your adorable little cat plan on doing that?"

Draco smirked.

* * *

Draco's first class of the year was Care of Magical Creatures. He had originally intended to drop it, but after the events of the summer, decided it might not be a complete waste of time. After all, he seriously doubted that even Hagrid could bring anything to class that was more dangerous than Kirara. 

Who, to Draco's delight, had decided to attend classes with him on the first day. The look on McGonagall's face when she saw them enter the Great Hall was definitely a wonderful start to the school year.

Draco spent the trip to Care of Magical Creatures chatting with Padma Patil, who was crooning over his pet cat. With Kirara around, Draco noticed he seemed to be attracting the attention of a lot more girls. He couldn't honestly say that he minded. Except for the mudbloods: they were annoying. Unfortunately, chatting with Padma meant that he was distracted and didn't notice the topic for Hagrid's first class of the year until Kirara began to growl slightly.

When he caught his first glimpse of the giant spider, he froze.

"Well, now that yer all here," Hagrid began with a wide grin on his face, "I'd like ter introduce you all to Aragog. He's an acromantula. Can anyone tell me anythin' 'bout acromantulas?"

A few tentative hands slowly went up. Hagrid opened his mouth to call upon one of them to answer, when Kirara jumped off of Draco's shoulder. Pansy shrieked in alarm, as the two-tailed cat calmly trotted up to Aragog.

Kirara stopped directly in front of the giant spider and sniffed at it. The eight eyes staring at her didn't faze her one bit. In fact, she didn't even seem to notice.

Then something quite unexpected happened.

Aragog hissed as he scuttled a few steps backwards, away from the cute kitten standing in front of him.

"Hagrid," he said in a surprisingly shrill and frightened voice, "get that thing away from me!"

Hagrid was stunned. He looked at the cat with confusion, trying to figure out just how Aragog saw her as a threat.

"Yes, er. . . 'ere kitty, kitty," he said and began to slowly walk towards here with outstretched arms.

Kirara, however, had apparently seen enough, because she abruptly turned around and trotted back to the students, jumping nimbly onto Draco's shoulder. Draco scratched her behind her ear. Then he turned to Hagrid.

"Well, Kirara here thinks the acromantula's not a threat," he said.

"Not a threat! To what? Your virginity!" one of the Gryffindor boys exclaimed.

"But the spider was scared of it," Pansy said with a frown, "Draco, why would that thing be scared of Kirara?"

"Because she's a demon cat of course."

"So you've said. . . but she doesn't look very demonic. I mean, granted the two tails are odd, but not exactly what I'd call demonic."

Draco smirked and looked at Kirara.

"Kirara, would you like to go see how Professor Snape's first Defense against the Dark Arts class is going?" he asked.

Kirara meowed enthusiastically and leaped down to the ground again.

"Malfoy, what are you talking about?" Theodore Nott asked.

"Maybe he's finally lost-" Dean Thomas never finished his statement, because in that moment Kirara was engulfed in a ball of flame.

The entire class watched in stunned silence as Draco climbed onto the back of what now looked like a sabre-toothed tiger. He winked at Pansy before Kirara roared and flew off towards the castle.

Hagrid followed the two with his eyes, gaping. Slowly the look of astonishment on his face turned to one of excitement and a giddy grin began to show itself. He looked like a child, who had just discovered a new toy.

Professor Snape nearly had a heart attack when he turned around and caught sight of his prize pupil outside his classroom window. Especially since the window was several floors up. And the fact that said student was grinning like an idiot, waving frantically and had shouted "Hello Professor Snape!" so that the entire room heard him.

"Mr. Malfoy, please do explain what you are doing at my window," he stated evenly, once he'd recovered somewhat from the shock, "you are a prefect and should therefore be aware that flying around on your broom outside of either class or the quidditch pitch is prohibited."

"But professor," Draco beamed, "I'm not on my broom." He moved back a bit and another head came into view. "By the way, have you met Kirara yet, professor?"

Snape stared, speechless.

"This is your. . ." he finally began.

"Yup."

"And Professor McGongall allowed you to. . . "

"Yup."

The greasy-haired professor closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"I am going to murder that blasted woman," he muttered breath before opening his eyes again. Then he noticed the rest of the class watching the exchange between him and Draco and eyeing the flying cat with interest.

"Get back to work!" he yelled, causing the entire class to jump and quickly acquire an acute fascination with their textbooks. "And you," he looked directly at Draco, "get back to class."

"Bye professor," Draco chirped happily before heading back to Care of Magical Creatures with Kirara.

**zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz**

Kagome was exhausted as she climbed out of the Bone Eater's Well for the last time. It was a week since Naraku had been defeated and even though she had spent at least half of that time sleeping, she still felt drained. And confused.

The deathblow to Naraku had been dealt by Kikyo using the completed Shikon Jewel. Kikyo's soul had then moved on into the next world. Of course, by then he had already been greatly weakened by the joint attack of Inu Yasha and Sesshoumaru. The two of them actually managed to make quite the efficient fighting team, despite the pushing, shoving, name-calling and sword clashes. After the battle, Kagome had slipped Shippo the note with the date, time and place for him to be in order to help her escape from the Dark Lord in the future. She had also saved Jaken and Rin from having their souls sucked out by Kanna and had seen a new sort of respect in Jaken's eyes afterwards. He never did call her "lady Kagome" though. She figured that must have been something he developed later on. In return for saving his charges, Sesshoumaru nodded to her request for him to be in England on the same day Shippo would be. And Sango and Miroku had gotten married.

But Inu Yasha was still alive.

'Maybe he died sometime after we defeated Naraku,' she thought to herself as she walked out of the little wooden structure where the well was hidden.

Suddenly she felt a desperate need to find out what happened to Inu Yasha. She ran into the house and up to her room. There, she grabbed Shippo's cell number from her bedside table before running back downstairs.

"Shippo?" she asked the minute someone picked up the phone.

"Umm. . . yeah, that's me. . .but who are you?" came Shippo's voice on the other end.

"Kagome. Naraku's been defeated; I just got back, but Inu Yasha's still alive. What happens to him Shippo?"

There was a slight pause on the other end.

"I'll be right over," Shippo said and he hung up the phone. Kagome stared at the receiver in her hand with annoyance. Then she realized something.

'Wait, does he even know where I live?' she thought. Quickly she redialled his number and then cursed when she got a busy signal.

"Kagome?"

She looked up to see her mother standing in the doorway. It looked like she had just gotten home from work. She was smiling.

"Hi mom," Kagome said with a small smile.

"How long are you here for this time, dear?"

"Forever," Kagome whispered, the reality of the situation hadn't really sunk in yet. The word 'forever' just seemed surreal. Somehow she couldn't even begin to fathom that she'd never see Sango, Miroku or Kohaku ever again. Or Inu Yasha. She sighed and looked up at her mother.

"It's over. The Bone Eater's Well will become inactive soon and I'll never be able to go back again."

Her mother's face suddenly lit up with joy and worry lines Kagome hadn't even noticed were there, disappeared. She dropped her briefcase and ran to Kagome, hugging her tightly.

"Oh darling," she whispered, "I know you'll miss all your friends, but I'm glad that you're finally safe now."

Kagome hugged her back, thankful that, as usual, her mother had guessed what her problem was without her having to say anything. They stood like that for several minutes, both blinking back tears.

A gentle knock on the back door broke the moment.

"Ehem, am I interrupting anything?" a familiar voice asked. Kagome spun out of her mother's arms.

"Shippo!" she cried happily and ran to embrace him.

"Shippo?" her mother said thoughtfully. "Kagome, isn't that the name of the fox child who travelled with you?"

Shippo chuckled.

"Yeah, well, that fox child grew up to be a big fox," he answered. Kagome's mother stared at him. A few moments later, she seemed to recover and walked up to him.

"I'm Kagome's mother, it's a pleasure to meet you. I've heard a lot about you. Er, well, about you as a child anyway."

Shippo laughed.

"It's wonderful to finally meet you Mrs. Higurashi," he said, "the woman behind all the wonderful food Kagome used to bring back with her to the Feudal Era."

Kagome's mother laughed.

"Would either of you like some tea?" she asked.

"Yes please," Kagome answered, suddenly feeling much better, now that Shippo was here.

"Sure, I'd love some," Shippo answered before turning back to Kagome again. "So, how long since you got back?"

"About 15 minutes, maybe a bit more."

"Hmmm. . . I'll give him five more minutes then. . ."

"Give who-?"

"Kagome!"

Kagome's eyes widened in surprise. She looked at Shippo and noticed the mischievous spark in them. Then she ran out the back door and into the courtyard of the shrine.

"Inu Yasha!" she called out.

Suddenly a red and silver blur came out of nowhere and she was being pulled into a tight embrace.

"I couldn't wait five hundred years to see you again," Inu Yasha whispered and Kagome squeezed back as hard as she could. She could feel tears welling up behind her eyes, but refused to let them fall.

Suddenly Kagome felt Inu Yasha go rigid. She eased her way out of the embrace and stood back to look at him.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I can sense a demon nearby," he answered with narrow eyes. Kagome sniggered.

"Well it's about damn time you did, Inu Yasha. Don't tell me you're getting rusty all ready."

Inu Yasha stepped in front of Kagome protectively. His right hand was already holding the hilt of Tetsuaiga.

"Do I know you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Inu Yasha, it's good to see you again," Shippo said with a wide grin as he started walking casually towards them, "it's been a while. Well, it has for me anyway: for you it's probably only been about two mintues. Right after we told you about Kagome getting attacked when she was in England. Of course, we forgot to mention the part where we rescued her. . ."

"Sh-Shippo?" Inu Yasha asked, looking thunder-struck. He looked the fox demon up and down, before sniffing cautiously.

"Yep, that's me alright. Only I didn't get here the easy way; I had to actually survive for five hundred years in order to get here." Shippo paused, considering something. "Which now makes me your elder, so you'd better show me some respect, kid."

Inu Yasha growled and Shippo laughed. Kagome giggled, realizing that the fox demon was right. Other than her, Inu Yasha was now by far the youngest in the group.

"Oh, and by the way, Kagome," Shippo turned to her, "Ayame sends an invitation for you, your family and Inu Yasha to come over for dinner tomorrow night. Think you can make it?"

"Huh?" was all Inu Yasha had to say to the invitation.

"Well. . . I'll have to ask my family, but I'm sure they'll all love to go," Kagome answered. "I know Souta will be very excited to meet you all."

"Tea's ready!"

"Thanks mom!"

Kagome and Shippo turned to go back into the house. Inu Yasha slowly followed after them, watching them carefully for signs that something was amiss.

"Oh, by the way," Shippo said casually, "I'd better warn you not to be alarmed tomorrow night; Kouga and Ayame's cubs can be quite the handful, but they don't mean any harm."

"Kouga!" Inu Yasha cried. "And wait. . .cubs!"

**zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz**

It was an hour into the opening quiditch game of the season: Slytherin vs. Gryffindor. Slytherin was in the lead, but barely. The snitch had yet to be spotted, but not for lack of trying on the part of the seekers. Both Harry and Draco wore looks of intense concentration as they scanned every inch of the quidditch pitch, before scanning every inch of it again.

Draco was the first to see it. It was hovering in the air about half a metre away from him, slightly to his right. He didn't reach out for it, though. Instead he cocked his head and observed it with a wary and rather confused look on his face.

The reason for this was that the snitch was acting rather, well, oddly.

First of all, it was bouncing up and down. Secondly, it was saying "Here I am! Catch me!" in a squeaky, high-pitched voice. And lastly it seemed to have grown a pair of rather large, goofy-looking eyes.

Slowly, Draco reached out and his hand closed around something cool and round. There were wings fluttering furiously out of each end of his clenched fist.

". . . and what a wonderful save by Ronald Weasley! I wonder what Slytherin's going to say to that one. As of right now the score is still 40-30 for Slytherin and the seekers have yet to catch sight of the snitch. No, hang on. . . Holy Merlin! I think Malfoy's got the snitch!"

Draco looked down at the announcer (some seventh year muggleborn from Hufflepuff) and caught the blonde girl staring back at him in amazement. He frowned and looked back at the fluttering wings. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Harry streaking towards him on his broom, no doubt wanting to see the snitch for himself.

Carefully, Draco shifted the snitch in his hand so that he could get a better look at it, without losing it. He hadn't imagined it: as he looked at the snitch, it winked at him.

"What is it Malfoy, never seen a snitch before?" Harry sneered from behind him.

"You mean one with big, round eyes that actually begs you to catch it?" Draco answered, still examining the snitch. . . which now had a furry red tail sticking out of the other end. "No, can't say that I have."

"One that what!"

Harry flew until he was along side Draco and looked over the Slytherin's shoulder. His eyes widened as he too got winked at by the snitch.

"Ok, I think I speak for the entire school when I say: what the bloody hell is going on there? Both seekers seem to be having some sort of conference. And it's not an angry one!"

"Harry, mate, what's going on?" Ron asked as he joined them. "Did Malfoy catch the snitch or didn't he?"

"Well, umm. . . he seems to have caught a snitch, but. . . hey, have the twins been creating a new line of joke snitches by any chance?"

Ron looked at Harry with an expression of complete and utter bafflement. He blinked several times.

"Umm. . .not to my knowledge. . .why?"

"Alright boys, what seems to be the problem here?" interrupted Professor Hooch sternly. "Mr. Malfoy, do you have the snitch? And for Merlin's sakes, do make sure that cat of yours stays out of the quidditch pitch!"

Draco turned around on his broom just as Kirara flew up to him. She sniffed at the odd snitch. Then she gently nuzzled it.

"Aaaww, Kirara, it's good to see you too," the snitch squeeked, nearly causing Professor Hooch to fall off her broom.

Draco looked from Kirara to the snitch and suddenly everything clicked.

"Shippo?" he asked carefully. There was a loud 'pop'.

"Congratulations Draco! You know, for a minute the-aaaah. . ." was all the fox demon managed to get out before Draco's broom overbalanced and they both went careening towards the ground.

Draco's fall was stopped by something soft and furry. He grabbed clumps of fur with both hands in order to stay where he was. When he finally managed to make his heart stop racing like it was running a marathon, he looked at what he was laying on. It was Kirara. Slowly he shifted his position so that he was riding on her back.

"Thanks girl," he said, rubbing the back of her neck. Kirara roared her 'You're welcome' and slowly circled to the ground, where Draco noticed a very odd-looking bird was also landing.

With a loud 'pop' the bird was gone and Shippo stood in its place.

Two brooms landed on the ground at the same time as Kirara.

"Shippo!" two Gryffindor voices cried out and suddenly Shippo found himself in the middle of a three-way hug.

"What are you doing here?" Draco asked, trying not to sound as excited as he was. And failing miserably.

"Meh, was in the neighbourhood," Shippo shrugged.

"How is everyone?"

"Well, Naraku's been defeated in the Feudal Era, so Kagome's back for good now. But she's in school, trying to make up for the fact that she was never there last year. And Inu Yasha's getting a crash course in living in the 21st century. Which is actually quite fun. Well, for us anyway. . ."

"Who's Inu Yasha?" Ron asked.

"Lord Sesshoumaru's half-brother," Draco answered, annoyed by the interruption.

Both quidditch teams had by now assembled around the group, looking confused. Suddenly one of the Gryffindor chasers realized where she had seen Shippo before.

"Oh!" Ginny exclaimed. "You were there at the park, when You-Know-Who attacked! You're that-that. . ."

"Fox demon?" Shippo suggested helpfully. There were gasps all around.

"Aaahh yes, Shippo, I believe it was?" Dumbledore said from behind them. Harry, Ron and Draco turned around to watch their headmaster approach with Professors McGonagall and Snape on either side of him.

Shippo nodded.

"Welcome to Hogwarts then Shippo. To what do we owe the honour of your visit?"

"Like I told these guys, I was just in the neighbourhood. Plus I was kinda curious. I've heard so much about Hogwarts and figured that visiting these guys is just about as good an excuse as any to come and see the school for myself!"

Then Shippo looked at McGonagall.

"Hm. I remember you; you were at the park. Arrived with all the red-heads. By the way, were they all related to you?" He looked at Ron during the last part.

"Yeah, I'm the youngest of six brothers," Ron answered.

"Wow, I didn't think humans had that many young anymore. Or maybe that's just Japan."

"No, his family is a very notable exception," Draco said. And that was all he said. Ron's eyes narrowed and everyone else (except for Shippo, who didn't know what was going on) held their breath, waiting for the inevitable insult that was to come.

It never came.

"Mr. Malfoy," Snape's smooth voice broke the silence, "for those of us who have not idea what is going on, could you please explain who this person is and how you know him?"

Shippo looked at Snape.

"You know," he said thoughtfully, "if I was five hundred years younger, I think I might be intimidated by you."

"Remember I told you about Cho Chang's cousin, Kagome? The miko?" Draco said, now that almost everyone was staring at Shippo again. "Well, this is Shippo, one of her friends from Japan that showed up to help her. He also happens to be a fox demon."

"He happens to be a fox demon?" Snape asked with a raised eyebrow.

"You know, there's something very 'Sesshoumaru' about this guy," Shippo commented to no one in particular. Then he turned to Draco. "What does he teach again?"

"_He_ teaches Defence against the Dark Arts," the professor answered, a twitch in his right eye indicating just how annoyed he was getting.

"Suits you," Shippo said. Then he turned his attention back to the three boys he was here to visit with. "By the way, what are you guys planning to do over your Christmas holidays?"

Finis

* * *

Well, I hope you all enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it and reading your reviews on it. I also hope I've managed to answer most of your questions in the last two chapters. If there's something that's really bugging you and you want it answered, then let me know and leave me your e-mail address (or make sure I can access it on your profile) and I'll e-mail you back .

Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing my story. I really appreciate your feedback.

Also thanks to everyone who took the time to read this story, even if you didn't review it.

Please review!


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